Bernkastel7734 wrote on 2022-01-16, 11:21:

Hello, I have a problem with booting DOS from CF card using poorman's XTIDE ( missused networking card). The motherboard I'm tr […]
Show full quote

Hello,
I have a problem with booting DOS from CF card using poorman's XTIDE ( missused networking card).
The motherboard I'm tring to use ,seems to be a slightly different version of this one:
https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/6769
(will upload my bios dump and try to make some documentation)
I have tried to boot this motherboard from appropiate HDD ( 428,1MB) and it worked.
I know that both the XTIDE eprom boot works properly ( tested on more modern motherboard, 386dx to be exact), also the CF card boots fine on more modern equipment, the disk controller card works both with XTIDE and that CF, but on other system.
The problem begins when I'm trying to boot from the CF card,
XTIDE finds this CF but freezens when attempting to boot
System freezes after 'Booting c>c' message, no error is displayed.
On both the HDD and CF I have DOS 6.22 installed.
Any idea why it is freezing?
Thanks for any help

Hi, I had problems starting on old PCs with CF cards, but I used the IDE-CF adapter, the cards started on more modern PCs but not on old ones, then I did various tests, and I managed to get the CF cards in all PCs.
The problem I think is caused by the BIOS (AMI in my PC), after I found a problem in some old controllers, I don't know what the problem is but they don't work with CF cards, but in this case any CF card doesn't work.
The advice I can give you is the following, put the CF in a PC that boots, and write down the cyl head sect values, to find them you can use HWInfo for example, these values ​​you have to enter them manually.
Second thing I recommend is to format the CF from DOS, and if you can use FDisk from old PCs with at most Win9X.
If you have difficulty, and you can't get it to work, maybe you need more info on the HW you use, but first you need to do the things I suggested.

Since I have used this CF card in other PC I already know it's CHS values, it's also formatted under DOS with DOS installed and working under other PC.
The problem is that, this bios does not allow to set CHS values, all it has when it comes to HDD types is selecting from 1 to 47, where Type 47 should be user defined but it didn't allow to enter the CHS. What is interesting is that, this motherboard have setup and diagnostic utility in it's eproms. When I run the diagnostic utility and run hdd test it allows me to enter CHS and even seems to be able to read from that CF card.

Bernkastel7734 wrote on 2022-01-16, 13:11:

Since I have used this CF card in other PC I already know it's CHS values, it's also formatted under DOS with DOS installed and working under other PC.
The problem is that, this bios does not allow to set CHS values, all it has when it comes to HDD types is selecting from 1 to 47, where Type 47 should be user defined but it didn't allow to enter the CHS. What is interesting is that, this motherboard have setup and diagnostic utility in it's eproms. When I run the diagnostic utility and run hdd test it allows me to enter CHS and even seems to be able to read from that CF card.

OK, so I don't think I can help you with this problem.
But I think it can be solved, I think it is strange that your XT-IDE does not allow booting from the CF, or does not allow you to manually set the values, those cards are made to work on XT PCs, and should also work in a 286 (if I understand correctly yours is a 286 AT).
If you can show the controller and CF card and provide the detected values, you might know if something is wrong.

Bernkastel7734 wrote on 2022-01-16, 13:11:

Since I have used this CF card in other PC I already know it's CHS values, it's also formatted under DOS with DOS installed and working under other PC.
The problem is that, this bios does not allow to set CHS values, all it has when it comes to HDD types is selecting from 1 to 47, where Type 47 should be user defined but it didn't allow to enter the CHS. What is interesting is that, this motherboard have setup and diagnostic utility in it's eproms. When I run the diagnostic utility and run hdd test it allows me to enter CHS and even seems to be able to read from that CF card.

Are you trying to use the numpad to type the values? Select type 47 and type the values using the number row above qwerty

since when do you need to enter chs values when using XT-IDE ?

weedeewee wrote on 2022-01-16, 15:17:

since when do you need to enter chs values when using XT-IDE ?

You do not. I didn't read the whole thread, but the most recent posts seemed to indicate he was trying to get it working without the XUB installed

I have tried both with XUB card and without.
Normal setup utility does not allow to set CHS,
and XUB freezes when attempting to boot.

Bernkastel7734 wrote on 2022-01-16, 16:04:

Normal setup utility does not allow to set CHS,

Did you see my message about the number pad? The Numpad does not function in AMIBIOS setup

I did, but the problem is that there is no space to enter CHS, not that I'm not able to change them.
It says something like:
Drive C type (1-47) :
and when I type 47 and hit enter it goes into setting D drive

Can you take a photo of the mainboard, and dump the bios ? might be useful.

Sure will do, but in a couple of hours, not at home rn

As I said it looks similar to that motherboad mentioned earlier

Sure does look very similar indeed.

It's always nice to have a good photo of different board revisions.

Are you able to boot dos from floppy with the xub and cf card in the 286 ?

Haven't yet try to use a floppy, will go that way and see

🤣, I have tried to use different BIOS, I have used Quadtel 286 bios for IBM 5170.
XTIDE still hangs during the boot, but this BIOS allows to type CHS and I managed to boot from CF card without using XTIDE

And now, since I can boot I can see another problem with that system, it shows as 286 7MHz while it should be 10MHz

So, this is dump of original BIOS, but since it handles HDDs so badly I don't really think there is a point of using it. ( Note: Since the sockets are not labeled I do not know which one is odd and even). Nethertheless the diagnostic utility is quite usefull.

here's to hoping deksor, or one of the other people who maintain the ultimateretro repository, pick it up and add it to the database 😀

weedeewee wrote on 2022-01-17, 16:19:

here's to hoping deksor, or one of the other people who maintain the ultimateretro repository, pick it up and add it to the database 😀

https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/10287