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DTC 2290 EISA IDE controller help

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First post, by Ammo_Headache

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My newest acquisition is an EISA based system which included an ATI MACH32 EISA card (YAY!) and a DTC 2290 EISA EIDE/Floppy controller. When I received it, the DTC's jumpers were set to have the BIOS disabled for that card. I adjusted it to enabled with memory address C8000. The drive I have connected to it is small (240mb) so I have the jumpers for 64 head mapping set to disabled. The issue is (and this could be perfectly normal) I don't see any option ROM display when booting. I would think it would perform like the ISA or VLB cards from DTC where the BIOS shows what drives it recognizes during boot, but nothing. I changed the memory address to D4000 but still no luck. The drive is working if I set it up with the correct settings in the motherboard's AMI BIOS. I know this isn't a common card and I can't find a manual for it. The only thing I have to go off of is the EISA CFG file's notes. I have run the EISA config utility and the card seems to be operational, just nothing to indicate that it's BIOS is active. I know it is a longshot but does anyone have this card that can confirm or deny that I will see the ROM displayed during boot? Thanks!

Reply 1 of 4, by Horun

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Hmm no real manual found, the archives have a web manual but very little other info on 2290, manuals: http://web.archive.org/web/19971026091524/htt … anuals/dtc1.htm
2290 specific: http://web.archive.org/web/19971026113556/htt … anuals/2x90.htm

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Reply 2 of 4, by Ammo_Headache

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Horun wrote on 2025-04-19, 21:04:

Hmm no real manual found, the archives have a web manual but very little other info on 2290, manuals: http://web.archive.org/web/19971026091524/htt … anuals/dtc1.htm
2290 specific: http://web.archive.org/web/19971026113556/htt … anuals/2x90.htm

Thanks! Yes, hard to find any info on this card. I think my next step is to use it without knowing if the BIOS is working and load the DOS driver that is here on the drivers site. Also, the BIOS version (according to the sticker is BEP16A) seems to be 1.6A but there is also a 1.6B and 2.2A also on the drivers site, so I might burn a new BIOS for it and see if that does anything.

Reply 3 of 4, by weedeewee

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If you can boot in dos you can check if the bios is actually present at the location you specified using DEBUG.
run DEBUG
type
d c800:0
or
d d400:0

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Reply 4 of 4, by Ammo_Headache

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weedeewee wrote on 2025-04-19, 21:33:
If you can boot in dos you can check if the bios is actually present at the location you specified using DEBUG. run DEBUG type […]
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If you can boot in dos you can check if the bios is actually present at the location you specified using DEBUG.
run DEBUG
type
d c800:0
or
d d400:0

Good thinking! Yes, I see the BIOS in there. So, there is at least something being loaded. Unsure if it is doing anything. I loaded the DOS driver and it sees the card and the drive attached, listing me off the drive geometry and that 32 bit mode is enabled . I guess next step is to find a large drive and see if it works. It could be there just isn't any onscreen feedback during boot. That is the hard part of not having a manual. No idea what normal behavior is. Appreciate everyone's help so far!

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