Vipersan wrote:Put the Adaptec and quantum in the Toshiba ..but it fails to boot ..hanging (cursor flashing) after memory check.
Perhaps I need […]
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Put the Adaptec and quantum in the Toshiba ..but it fails to boot ..hanging (cursor flashing) after memory check.
Perhaps I need to disable the Connor in bios rather than just pulling the ide connector ?
How do I enter bios on the Toshiba ?
Can anyone advise ?
I have had the same experience in regards to hanging after the memory check. This seems to happen if you have a hard drive set in the BIOS but there is actually no hard drive connected on the primary IDE. Then it stalls. If you have a drive connected, it continues. If you set the BIOS option to "No Drive", then it will continue to boot if there is no drive connected.
This is a problem however, because if you disable the HDD option in the BIOS in order to continue booting without an internal IDE, the BIOS seems to disable hard disk support altogether... I cannot get the I/O controller ISA card to detect any HDD, whatever address settings I try.
And to make things even worse and more confusing: Even if I use the patched BIOS chip (flashed BIOS that lets me boot from something else than a Conner), enable Hard Disk in BIOS and attach a HDD to the main IDE, it STILL doesn't detect any HDDs connected to the controller card. This could be different when using SCSI, but it seems the Toshiba simply ignores/overrides/disables ANY hard disk support other than the main IDE channel. This could be because the Toshiba disables any further IDE entries... but maybe SCSI will work? You have the unaltered BIOS chip, that means it should set it to NO DRIVE regardless of what you plug into the main IDE anyways, and let you boot. The question is whether you can then still boot from a SCSI. I cant boot from an IDE on controller card at all it seems, with both BIOS chips and with both - Hard Disk set and NO DRIVE set.
If it doesn't, then there is sadly no way around ordering a flashed BIOS chip with the hybrid BIOS 03I+03C.
It will enable you to use any IDE drive of your choosing in the main IDE slot. It seems that these computer don't let you boot form or use the secondary interface for storage media.
On a brighter note..: So it turns out that IDE over ISA didn't work, but experiments with a normal non-proprietary FDD have actually been successful! 😀
I took out the proprietary floppy drive, put in the ISA I/O controller card and attached a normal floppy drive from Mitsumi on the controller's FDD connector. For now I powered it via an external 5V power source.
After booting, it worked. I was immediately able to boot from the floppy drive and use it normally like the proprietary one.
This is good news for anyone out there that has a T3200/5200 series with a broken proprietary floppy drive, as it means you can successfully replace it with a normal drive. The best thing is that there is a spare open space next to where the internal floppy drive sits that leads to the expansion card area in the back, which lets you neatly guide the FDD cable to the controller card in the back, internally (!). You can mount the replacement drive in the exact spot where the original drive was and neatly guide the FDD cable through this hole back to the controller card.
As for power, you only would need to find out which two pins from the proprietary floppy connector on the mainboard next to it give you the 5V power and then you could also power it internally.
All this makes it totally possible and viable to replace the proprietary FDD with a generic one.
I am still not quite done with the IDE experiemtns, but as for now it seems IDE over I/O ISA card is out of the question. Maybe you have better luck with SCSI... But if not, there is always the possibility to order a preflashed patched BIOS on a chip for 10-20 bucks to simply use any IDE replacement drive of you choice.
PS: You can enter the BIOS on these Toshiba machines in three different ways.
1] Disconnecting the BIOS/RTC battery and reattaching it after 30 secs. The next time you start, it should tell you that the CMOS data is invalid, and offer you to enter the BIOS to set things right. (Recommended if you replace/change any hardware)
2] By holding LCTRL-LSHIFT-ESC (or was it F1?) when starting the machine.
3] putting the TESTx.EXE diagnostic program from Toshiba on a bootdisk and running it manually.