Re: BIOS image collection - requests, discussion etc
Posted on 2019-10-15, 19:33
What would you all say is the best 286 BIOS? Is there any modern or open source BIOS for these clones, similar to the Super XT/Turbo XT 3.1 BIOS for 8088 machines?
Re: Help identifying this EGA card
Posted on 2019-10-15, 19:12
Is there a chance that another card based on the same Chips & Tech chipset might have the same switch settings?
Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?
Posted on 2019-10-15, 14:05
To each their own, I suppose. Just looks like another cheap case to me, but I guess others see it differently. It could be dark gray or light gray or black or navy blue for all it matters.
Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?
Posted on 2019-10-15, 13:50
Mister Xiado wrote: Hardly tacky. Kind of a Sega Master System kind of aesthetic. Just looks like every black plastic case to me, the only special thing about it is the CRT
Re: Help identifying this EGA card
Posted on 2019-10-15, 04:15
Wouldn't be surprised if there were more than one variation of this card out there - It did come out of a generic turbo XT clone, after all.
Re: A six slot 5150???
Posted on 2019-10-15, 03:25
A lot of multifunction cards have this header to "future-proof" the card. AST advertised this heavily on a lot of their cards. See: http://minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/AST_Advan … sers_Manual.pdf They even show the header on the front cover of the manual.
Re: Anyone collecting old storage media?
Posted on 2019-10-15, 03:24
I don't collect the media themselves, but I do pride myself in my collection of vintage hard disk drives. I've got just about everything except the very first Seagates. Still looking for ST-506, ST-412, ST-212, and an ST-213. Maybe an ST-277N if I can ever find one for an even close to reasonable …
Help identifying this EGA card
Posted on 2019-10-15, 03:21
As some of you may know, I'm working on a Turbo XT machine. I've got some color monitors coming in the mail, and I thought I'd give them a try. There's just one problem: I don't know how to set up some of my EGA cards which I plan to use. I've got an early revision ATi EGA Wonder that I'm going to …
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2019-10-15, 03:08
lol goodwill We have an "America's Thrift Store" here, and boy are they fantastic. They'll carry just about any computer they can get their hands on, CRTs, keyboards, accessories... Everything. Once upon a time, I was lucky enough to have a friend behind the scenes in the store. Came in once while …
Re: Turbo XT woes
Posted on 2019-10-15, 03:04
Hmm you don't have an old AT style KB that has the nice XT/AT switch on back laying around ? They work great for testing purposes. BTW picked up a Leading Edge DC-2014 xt KB for $5 at a thrift store a few months ago, was very clean and works great, not as nice as a model F but am not complaining …
Re: Turbo XT woes
Posted on 2019-10-14, 18:46
Agh, that sucks. I suppose I'll just get my model F and hope it works right.
Re: Turbo XT woes
Posted on 2019-10-14, 17:01
I bought a home brew keyboard adapter from somebody on vcfed. Not sure if it's still in production, but doesn't hurt to ask. I don't think it was very expensive. There shouldn't be any issues with the model F, as long as it's the XT version and not he 84-key AT version. Well, it never worked with …
Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?
Posted on 2019-10-14, 16:59
Yeah, I'd really love a CRT like that, but I can only find these posts as well. The rest of the case looks tacky almost. This is the true step up from having an LED panel for a speed display! Challenge: Put a battery in it for an extreme laptop!
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2019-10-14, 16:56
Bought the last piece missing for my SuperSocket 7 build: a CD-ROM analog audio cable. Oh shit these things are so annoying. Back when I started this hobby I was putting together my first PCs and the things I found I needed and couldn't find were bewildering. Analogue CD cables, screws, working IDE …
Re: Turbo XT woes
Posted on 2019-10-14, 01:36
Good job FAMICOMASTER ! Think I would stick with the original BIOS until you get the KB thing figured out. Thanks! Both BIOSes came out of the same kind of board - Both were DTK Turbo 640s. One just happens to be a Phoenix BIOS (original to this specific board) and one happens to be a Turbo XT BIOS …
Re: Turbo XT woes
Posted on 2019-10-14, 00:23
UPDATE (Again): Putting the bad chips into bank 4 caused it to stop booting entirely. I pulled the 4164s from an old "Magitronic" MDA / Parallel card I won't be using and stuck them into bank 4. I was one chip short so I picked one at random from the original bank 4, and now I have a full 640K on …
Re: Turbo XT woes
Posted on 2019-10-13, 23:57
UPDATE: Pulling the chips from bank 3 and 4 and installing bank 4 into bank 3's positions got it to boot to DOS 6.22! I guess one of my 4164s is bad or something. I'll put them into bank 4 and try the other BIOS again, maybe it will tell me what chip it is.
Re: Turbo XT woes
Posted on 2019-10-13, 23:46
Caluser2000 wrote: Should auto detect but is isn't unusual for them to flake out because of a bad cap. Any way to force it into XT mode? I'm not opposed to taking it apart and putting a wire across something for now.
Re: Turbo XT woes
Posted on 2019-10-13, 23:32
I'm running "Turbo XT version 3.1" already, it shows all the same information at boot as the one you linked. The Phoenix BIOS is much different, but this unbranded one works fine. I'm going to set it to 512K on the switches and see if it will boot properly from there. I just want to get to a DOS …
Re: Turbo XT woes
Posted on 2019-10-13, 23:06
Well, I tried the BIOS from my parts motherboard and now it... "Boots" I think I like this "TURBO XT" BIOS better, it's pretty neat. It displays the list of expansion cards it can detect and the RAM counter at the bottom. It doesn't tell me the keyboard is bad, but it does ignore any input from it. …
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