VOGONS


First post, by keropi

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Hiya!

I started messing with a Samsung Deskmaster 286/12 system, naturally the battery was dead so I was getting boot issues.
Replaced the battery and spent quite some time trying key combos to enter the BIOS - unsuccessfully.
Since it is a 1988 286 Phoenix BIOS my guess is that there is no rom-based setup - so instead I used the disk based one.
It worked, I adjusted date, time, hdd options, let it auto-configure the memory and at first glance all seemed ok:

oY56NZXl.png

(not sure why base memory is 639kb - changed it to 640 manually but made no difference)

So after a reboot I am still greeted with this screen:

IJHv48tl.png

I am out of ideas atm, do I need a special version of PHOENIX setup? A newer one? A Samsung-specific one?

Any ideas on what to try next are welcomed, thanks!

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Reply 1 of 11, by keropi

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So I searched some more and found a site that hosts the SETUP.COM for this specific system that uses the CHIPS 82C235 chipset
SETUP Für SAMSUNG DeskMaster 286/12 Computer : http://edv-janssen.synology.me/ct_treiber_ser … puter/files.htm

I am leaving all this here for future reference - if cmos errors persist just type-in the ram values manually in setup.com and all will be cleared.
Trying to get those hardware EMS blocks running now 😁

Attachments

  • Filename
    286setup.zip
    File size
    30.41 KiB
    Downloads
    130 downloads
    File comment
    SETUP for SAMSUNG DeskMaster 286/12 CHIPS 82C235
    File license
    Public domain

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Reply 2 of 11, by keropi

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I am also attaching a working version (at least for me) of the hardware EMS driver for the CHIPS 82C235 chipset.
The one in the above archive just froze my system.

D7tqmA6l.png

WQIcG1sl.png

and here are the settings in SETUP.COM

clYKLm7l.png

jCPMBOvl.png

No idea if something else other than windows or some serious app uses EMS with a 286 - maybe XMS is more useful nowdays?

Attachments

  • Filename
    82C235_EMSdrv_new.zip
    File size
    13.49 KiB
    Downloads
    73 downloads
    File comment
    SCATEMM.SYS for CHIPS 82C235
    File license
    Public domain

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Reply 4 of 11, by keropi

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I think the system is too slow to enjoy WCII even with speech 🤣
I plan to stick an AdLib there or some ESS card - keep it basic

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Reply 5 of 11, by umageddon

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Hey great! I looked everywhere for that setup!
I ended up flashing new EPROMs with some later Samsung 286 models that included a BIOS setup routine. The downside is that they dont include a VGA bios for the onboard display as it resides in the same EPROM as the system BIOS

I ended up also using Quarterdeck QRAM v2 for 286. Works nicely. With EMU386 its almost a 386 machine. Its just too bad this model tops out at only 2MB.

Reply 6 of 11, by keropi

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umageddon wrote on 2020-05-19, 21:52:

Hey great! I looked everywhere for that setup!
I ended up flashing new EPROMs with some later Samsung 286 models that included a BIOS setup routine. The downside is that they dont include a VGA bios for the onboard display as it resides in the same EPROM as the system BIOS

I ended up also using Quarterdeck QRAM v2 for 286. Works nicely. With EMU386 its almost a 386 machine. Its just too bad this model tops out at only 2MB.

Were those BIOSes for the 82C235 chipset? if they are 32kb maybe it's possible to combine the vga bios too - do you have links for those newer BIOSes?
I also tried the bios you uploaded , your's has a 02M version and forces ram parity - something that does not work on my mobo since the onboard 1mb does not have parity and the board layout on the ram area is different.
Would be interesting to max this system as much as possible 😁

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Reply 7 of 11, by umageddon

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keropi wrote on 2020-05-19, 22:16:

Were those BIOSes for the 82C235 chipset? if they are 32kb maybe it's possible to combine the vga bios too - do you have links for those newer BIOSes?
I also tried the bios you uploaded , your's has a 02M version and forces ram parity - something that does not work on my mobo since the onboard 1mb does not have parity and the board layout on the ram area is different.

Yes they are for the scat 235 - the setup looks the same as your SETUP.COM program, just newer. Functionally it appears identical.

Luckily PCEM emulator had them both in their v15 BIOS rom set. Apparently v16 adds another samsung machine BIOS, which I havent had time to explore yet.

If you can find a link to download PCEM’s romset, they are the Samsung SPC-4216P and SPC-4200P.

They both are 32K roms. They are 64K roms. I tried messing around by adding the VGA bios to the empty area past the system BIOS area but I just dont have the knowledge (or time) to make it work, so I just installed a Trident VGA card and flashed the system BIOS with the vga-less images.

I can send you the BIOS’s later this weekend if you cant find a link to the PCEM roms... let me know.

Last edited by umageddon on 2020-05-20, 09:10. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 8 of 11, by keropi

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umageddon wrote on 2020-05-19, 23:54:
Yes they are for the scat 235 - the setup looks the same as your SETUP.COM program, just newer. Functionally it appears identica […]
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Yes they are for the scat 235 - the setup looks the same as your SETUP.COM program, just newer. Functionally it appears identical.

Luckily PCEM emulator had them both in their v15 BIOS rom set. Apparently v16 adds another samsung machine BIOS, which I havent had time to explore yet.

If you can find a link to download PCEM’s romset, they are the Samsung SPC-4216P and SPC-4200P.

They both are 32K roms. I tried messing around by adding the VGA bios to the empty area past the system BIOS area (cant remember ... 0x1000?) but I just dont have the knowledge (or time) to make it work, so I just installed a Trident VGA card and flashed the system BIOS with the vga-less images.

I can send you the BIOS’s later this weekend if you cant find a link to the PCEM roms... let me know.

Just tested these BIOSes but they are not useful if one wants to use the onboard VGA.
Both are 64kbyte bioses: upper 32kb is the code for the ROM-SETUP and lower 32kb is the bios code.
So when the system boots it uses the lower 32kb of data but if you press the "enter setup" key then it jumps to the upper 32kb where the rom-setup program resides.
It is possible to make working versions of both 4200P and 4216P bios dumps for the older DeskMaster 286/12 but you will essentially be replacing the upper 32kb of rom-setup code with the onboard vga bios.
If you do that the system will boot just fine but if you press the setup key the system will just freeze since the data are missing.
In the end unless some all-in-one 32kb 82C235 BIOS emerges it is not possible to have all vga+setup+bios in rom since the max size as-is is 64kbytes.

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Reply 9 of 11, by umageddon

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My bad! Yes they are 64K roms. The rom for deskmaster is also 64K. The system came with a AM27C512 EPROM and I used a couple W27C512 EEPROMs to try other images.

I am Out of town and away from my computer and replying with an iphone - sorry for the confusion.

Anyways I tried splicing VGA BIOS with both setups and couldnt get anything to work.

Its either onboard setup and no onboard VGA or onboard VGA with no onboard setup. I opted for the former with a VGA card.

I also tried other c&t 286 SCAT chipset BIOS’s - some would make to various stages Of POST, but none would finish and would freeze up.

Did Samsung have its own special sauce baked in with these scat chipsets?

I also have a samsung 486 board with the same board form factor and it too is very similar in build. They share the same 10-pin AT power supply, very similar components down to very similar versions marked on the 8042 keyboard controllers.

Cant wait to get home to try the original BIOS with the software setup.

Reply 11 of 11, by keropi

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thecheese2022 wrote on 2022-11-13, 06:25:

Could you upload bios version 3.10 04m From Samsung deskmaster 286?

turns out I still have a BIOS dump , but the system is long gone

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