Is there some special trick to getting a "Sintechi" FC1307A SD-to-IDE adapter working properly? \ VOGONS

Is there some special trick to getting a "Sintechi" FC1307A SD-to-IDE adapter working properly?

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First post, by NJRoadfan

Posted on 2023-10-23, 23:28

NJRoadfan Offline

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Picked up one of these on Amazon for projects. Tried a whole bunch of smaller SD cards from various brands I had on hand (mostly 8GB and 16GB). NONE of them work. The unit only intermittently detects the card with the correct size OR as 32MB. In either case I can't actually write anything to the card with the adapter. Doesn't matter what IDE controller I use either. I've tried onboard (Intel PIIX4), a Promise Ultra 133 PCI card, and even my USB-to-IDE adapter on a modern machine. All exhibit the same behavior of not being able to write to the card and/or not detecting the size correctly. I've tried blasting the SD card's formatting and any partition map that might be on them as well.

Anything else I should try before declaring this thing a dud and throwing it in the trash?

On a related note, the SATA-to-IDE bridge I bought worked perfectly fine with a random 250GB hard drive in a 440BX based system (albeit capped at the 28-bit LBA limit).

Reply 1 of 7, by kingcake

Posted on 2023-10-23, 23:58

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I use the "GINTOOYUN" brand ones off Amazon. Used probably 25 of them at least. No problem. If I do run into a PC not liking the card/capacity it's always the BIOS's fault and XT-IDE/Drive overlay fixes it.

Sorry I can't help much for your brand.

Reply 2 of 7, by NJRoadfan

Posted on 2023-10-24, 00:35

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The "brands" are meaningless. Mine is branded KOOBOOK. They all use the same FC-1307A chip and come out of the same factory. This one is looking like its going in the trash.

Reply 3 of 7, by Horun

Posted on 2023-10-24, 02:38

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I would not say they all come from same factory, China has many electronic manu plants, some good some bad....🤣

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 4 of 7, by weedeewee

Posted on 2023-10-24, 04:58

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They do not all use the same firmware or pcb layout.
I tried one in a compaq armada m700 and it failed to work in udma mode together with the dvdrom drive, both are on the same channel.
I then bought another one, same chip, which looked more like a 2"5 drive, and that one worked like a charm.
It's a HUGE difference having the device running in PIO mode vs UDMA mode.

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Reply 5 of 7, by kingcake

Posted on 2023-10-24, 05:05

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weedeewee wrote on 2023-10-24, 04:58:
They do not all use the same firmware or pcb layout. I tried one in a compaq armada m700 and it failed to work in udma mode toge […]
Show full quote

They do not all use the same firmware or pcb layout.
I tried one in a compaq armada m700 and it failed to work in udma mode together with the dvdrom drive, both are on the same channel.
I then bought another one, same chip, which looked more like a 2"5 drive, and that one worked like a charm.
It's a HUGE difference having the device running in PIO mode vs UDMA mode.

How are you putting them in UDMA mode? Just using an 80 conductor UDMA ribbon cable?

Reply 6 of 7, by weedeewee

Posted on 2023-10-24, 15:08

weedeewee Online

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kingcake wrote on 2023-10-24, 05:05:

weedeewee wrote on 2023-10-24, 04:58:
They do not all use the same firmware or pcb layout. I tried one in a compaq armada m700 and it failed to work in udma mode toge […]
Show full quote

They do not all use the same firmware or pcb layout.
I tried one in a compaq armada m700 and it failed to work in udma mode together with the dvdrom drive, both are on the same channel.
I then bought another one, same chip, which looked more like a 2"5 drive, and that one worked like a charm.
It's a HUGE difference having the device running in PIO mode vs UDMA mode.

How are you putting them in UDMA mode? Just using an 80 conductor UDMA ribbon cable?

Since it's a 2"5 adapter in a laptop, I couldn't tell ya. the drive works in udma33 mode and the dvdrom works in MWDMA mode... but yeah, I guess an 80 wire cable would be required.

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Do not ask Why !
https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Serial_port

Reply 7 of 7, by NJRoadfan

Posted on 2023-11-10, 05:05

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Picked up a "Gintooyun" branded adapter and it works fine. First one was likely a dud.

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