Problems using a CF-IDE adapter \ VOGONS

Problems using a CF-IDE adapter

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by Steapa

Posted on 2021-01-13, 22:00

Steapa Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 36
Joined: 2020-07-31, 22:38

Hello!

I bought a CF-IDE adapter to use on my MICRO-STAR MS-4138 / 486SI5 VESA socket 3 motherboard. I'm using a 1GB card, but the BIOS won't auto-detect it, and on POST it shows "Primary HDC error". If I use a 512 MB HDD it detects just fine, so the controller card is not the problem. Maybe is a mobo limitation? I don't have a smaller card at the moment, but I thought that 1GB wasn't that much. What should I do?

This is the adapter and card I'm using, it connects directly to the ide port:

Reply 1 of 3, by pshipkov

Posted on 2021-01-14, 01:23

pshipkov Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1951
Joined: 2018-10-11, 05:08

I hit some problems like this before.
It is the IDE controller actually.

retro bits and bytes

Reply 2 of 3, by Pierre32

Posted on 2021-01-14, 01:53

Pierre32 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1293
Joined: 2019-07-19, 22:46
Location: Australia

You can hit numerous snags using CF cards. The big likelihood here is that your BIOS has a 512MB drive limit. You can address this with drive overlay software like EZ-DRIVE.

Sometimes though, the card just won't play. I've had cards throw controller errors, but swapping to another brand (the same size) worked fine.

Reply 3 of 3, by Steapa

Posted on 2021-01-14, 18:25

Steapa Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 36
Joined: 2020-07-31, 22:38

Thanks for the replies.

Both Ez-Drive and OnTrack Disk Manager did not work for me, they can't find the cf.
I tried to use it on another motherboard with award bios from 1995 with LBA and it detected normally.

I also tried to insert the parameters that I got from the other mobo, but it also did not work:

C:995
H:32
S:63
L:1990

Disabling LBA mode did not change anything. I also tried three different controller cards to no avail.

I also forget to mention that the first mobo has an Amibios from 1994.
I'm getting a bit hopelessly.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware

Main menu

Common searches