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Trying to get XTIDE bios working on Intel 8/16 lan adapter

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First post, by SirAngelbane

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I have a Dell 333s/l (386/33) that I currently have booting off of a 512K San Disk CF card on the on board IDE to do this I have to use a Lo-tech ISA XT CF Adapter rev. 3 to load the XTIDE Bios (IDE_386.bin).

The XT CF Adapter is jumpered to use address C800h. (IO is 300-31Fh)

The EEPROM im using in the XT CF Adapter is a SST39SF040.

I want to add a network card to this system but the problem is that to do so I will have to replace the XT CF Adapter as there will not be any free slots in the machine to simply add another card.

I am attempting to use a Intel 8/16 lan adapter as that is the only ISA network card I have that has a 32 pin option rom socket.

But when I put the EEPROM onto the lan adapter and replace the XT CF Adapter with it the XTIDE bios does not load and the system will not boot off of the CF Card.

The when I use Softset2 to config the lan adapter it appears to work and it will save config changes.
After a reboot it will not detect the bios ROM and CheckIt Does not show adapter rom at C800h to CA00h.

When I put the rom chip that came with the lan adapter (A P28F020) back in and reboot.
Softset2 will detect that ROM and CheckIt Shows 8K adapter rom at C800h to CA00h.
However im not sure what is on that rom and the system will not book off of the CF with it in.

I was thinking maybe the SST39SF040 isnt compatable with the lan adapter but I cannot find anything that says it would not be.

I have not been able to determine what im doing wrong and at a loss to what to try next,
Any suggestions would be appreciated as I have been struggling with this for days now trying a bunch of different things.

I dont have an stand alone EEPROM programmer so I dont have a way to flash a 28pin EEPROM to try on a different adapter.

I be open to trying a 28 pin EEPROM but finding the right programmer and the EEPROM to go with it and learning to use that is a bit daunting.

SoftSet2 Config of the lan adapter.
I/O Address: 300 - 30fh
Interrupt: 5
Connector: Auto
Force 8bit: No
Amount of Ram Mapped: None
Ram Start Address: None
Flash/Boot ROM Address: c800 - c9FFh

Reply 1 of 4, by tauro

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That's quite a fully-featured 386 motherboard... almost looks like a 486... nice!

The SST39SF040 should be compatible but maybe the way it was programmed isn't.
It's 4 Mbit vs 2 Mbit (P28F020), or 512K vs 256K.

I don't remember the correct way to program the (E)EPROMs for them to be compatible with NICs.

Getting an EEPROM programmer is going to be handy... And maybe another ISA card too.

Also, are you using a riser card?
If you get one you'll able to use multiple ISA cards simultaneously.

Reply 2 of 4, by Jo22

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Hm. Many NICs have an "2764" label next to ROM socket. I'd use an 27C64 or 27C128 EEPROM here, thus.

I'd also make sure the ROM file had been opened and saved by the DOS utility, because of the ROM checksum.

Alternatively, there are pre-configured ROMs for testing purposes.
Re: IDE disk-on-module + 386

Good luck. 🙂

Edit:

The SST39SF040 should be compatible but maybe the way it was programmed isn't.
It's 4 Mbit vs 2 Mbit (P28F020), or 512K vs 256K.

Good point! It's also possible to put a small ROM image into a big chip, by using COPY /B.
Something like COPY /B ROM.BIN+ROM.BIN > BIGROM.BIN
Or similar. I have to check.

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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 3 of 4, by MikeSG

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May be the VPP pin (top left, with the BIOS facing north) is pulled high or low and not suitable for the SST39SF040.

The P28F020 is a 256kx8, with the top-left pin labelled as VPP (256/512k select).
The SST39SF040 is either 128/256/512 x 8, with the top-left labelled as A18.

SST39SF010/SST39SF020 is either 128/256/512 x 8, with the top-left labelled as NC.

For programming, the TL866 programmer works well. The software it uses is called Xgpro. Slightly expensive but worth it in the long run if have multiple boards and BIOS to program.

Reply 4 of 4, by SirAngelbane

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I went ahead and bit the bullet on a T48 (TL866-3G) and some 28pin EProms (JIC).

First I tried to burn the same bios that I was using with the XTIDE to the P28F020 and tried it in the Intel 8/16 and it exhibited the same non functioning behavior as the SST39SF040. Then when I put the freshly modified P28F020 into the XT CF Adapter the machine booted as expected.

I also tried CATing the 8K rom together enough times to fill the P28F020 and that didnt seem to work either.

Since that didn't work I decided to use one of the 28 pin EPROMS (NMC27C64Q) and flashed the same bios I had been using on the SST39SF040 and P28F020 to it. I took that EPROM and put it in the 3Com 3C509B NIC that I also had. I configured it using its utility using the same address setting that I had used on the Intel 8/16.

Everything booted first time...

Since I had the 3Com NIC from the beginning, I should have just bought the programmer before I bought the XT CF Adapter, SST39SF040 and the Intel 8/16 adapter. But never having messed with boot roms on network cards and using bios extension roms I wanted something that I knew would work. I'm not sure why I was so intimated at the idea of using one of those programmers It was way easier than I thought would be.

Anyway I still dont know why the Intel adapter will not work with the XTIDE Bios.

Maybe ill play with it more another time, but for now it is time to go to phase 2 actually getting the machine on the network.

Not that I have that device I probably should dump the Bios that is actually on my board as it is a higher revision that what is on retroweb.

Thank you

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