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486 CD-Rom Questions

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Reply 20 of 45, by CkRtech

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http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-disk-floppy- … drives-337.html That it?

I also read the readme file in the files on the site Nipedley linked. It mentions running DOS drivers for 32-bit VLB access, however I imagine you aren't that far yet. One of the other EXE files looks like it sets a MODE for the card? <shrug> 16-bit is probably where you are at the moment.

Displaced Gamers (YouTube) - DOS Gaming Aspect Ratio - 320x200 || The History of 240p || Dithering on the Sega Genesis with Composite Video

Reply 21 of 45, by darry

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I may have some bad news for you, if the info in the following link is accurate .

http://www.verycomputer.com/11_7bf739737b09a7e7_1.htm

Basically, someone else gave up on using a DC420 with an optical drive over 20 years ago . Apparently, according to someone else, there are incompatibilities between (some/all?) caching IDE controllers and ATAPI drives .

You me be better off trying to find another IDE controller .

Reply 22 of 45, by rick12373

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darry wrote:
I may have some bad news for you, if the info in the following link is accurate . […]
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I may have some bad news for you, if the info in the following link is accurate .

http://www.verycomputer.com/11_7bf739737b09a7e7_1.htm

Basically, someone else gave up on using a DC420 with an optical drive over 20 years ago . Apparently, according to someone else, there are incompatibilities between (some/all?) caching IDE controllers and ATAPI drives .

You me be better off trying to find another IDE controller .

Thanks. Yes I was starting to suspect that may be the case. Any preference as to which one to get? Which ones work well, are reasonably priced and easy to get hold of? There seem to be quite a few options on eBay at the moment.

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 23 of 45, by darry

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rick12373 wrote:

Any preference as to which one to get? Which ones work well, are reasonably priced and easy to get hold of? There seem to be quite a few options on eBay at the moment.

If I were you, I would probably consider one of the following options .

a) Buy a generic ISA I/O card based around a UMC chip. AFAICR, they just worked back in the the day (though somebody here may have had a different experience and might want to comment). IMHO, ISA was not that much of a bottleneck for drives of that era .

b) Buy a sound card with an IDE interface . You already have a caching controller so why not keep using for the hard drive (the cache will probably help more than the VLB aspect).

Reply 24 of 45, by Nipedley

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It's a shame that you can't use that one 🙁

Someone's selling an identical card to the VLB one that I am using, it 'just works' had no problem with it at all. I have HDD connected to primary IDE (single cable) and CD-ROM connected to secondary IDE again on a single cable. eBay item number 152185140823, the part number is KJD-IDEIO or KJD-IDE10 and they seem to come up fairly often. The only thing you need to configure with them is jumpers to set what speed you want to use for IDE

Only thing is that one doesn't come with the breakout cable for the 2 serial ports (connects to pins on the card)

Reply 25 of 45, by rick12373

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Thanks for the help guys. I will check it out later. Right now I have to cut firewood up in the mountains (random I know 🤣).

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 26 of 45, by rick12373

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I have the KJD-IDE10 I/O board on the way so the saga will continue. I wish I could find an AT case though, it is hard work wrestling with the ATX one.

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 27 of 45, by Matth79

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http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-disk-floppy- … drives-337.html
Not much about the IDE side though - as an IDE controller with cache memory, it may well have compatibility issues with ATAPI.

I would guess that it is on standard primary resources.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-16-Bit-ISA-IDE- … HUAAOSwUV9WnsVS (actually USA, so may find it on .COM) - not sure if that could be set to secondary IDE.

Alternatively, need to find an SB with IDE http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Creative-CT2950-SB1 … ucAAOSwd4tUFIgd - again, USA, 1 left!

The other thing to look out for, may be a combined graphics and IO VLB card

Reply 28 of 45, by Robin4

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rick12373 wrote:

I have been unable to get any CD drives to work with the Promise DC-420. I have tried 3 different IDE CD-ROM drives with the driver that comes with Phil's DOS pack. Each of the drives was set to slave. I do not have a manual for the Promise DC420 I/O card. I can see some jumpers on the card. Maybe the jumpers need to be changed so that it can support a CD-ROM? I have the hard drive on the end of the ribbon cable and the CD-ROM on the connector before that in the middle. The BIOS won't detect a CD-ROM right? Because it doesn't when I go to detect drive D. I have been having problems getting cards seated properly due to having to use an ATX case. I was wondering if maybe the I/O card is not seated well, but if that is the case then why is the hard drive and mouse working?

here are some drivers and tools for your promise DC-420:

http://files.mpoli.fi/hardware/HDD/PROMISE/DC420.ZIP

~ At least it can do black and white~

Reply 29 of 45, by rick12373

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I will have the KJD-IDE10 board soon and will use that instead of the Promise 420. This is the one that Nipedley mentioned a few posts before this one.

As mentioned earlier in the thread I do have a SB with IDE and it works but the CD-ROM drive it works with will not read CD-Rs.

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 30 of 45, by Nipedley

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Hope it works out for you 😀 The KJD-IDE10 has worked flawlessly in my 486, and with fast speeds too. Infact on that one card I'm running compactflash via IDE adapter, 48x CD-RW, 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy & 5.25 1.2MB Floppy, all work perfectly

The jumpers & info for that board is here: http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-disk-floppy- … SIO-V2-313.html

Basically as long as nothing is set to disabled by the jumpers all you need to concern yourself with is the speed jumpers (JP17 and JP16), I can use either speed 0 or speed 2 with my compactflash card, giving either 1000kbit/s or 2400kbit/s speeds respectively

Reply 31 of 45, by rick12373

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Nipedley wrote:

Hope it works out for you 😀 The KJD-IDE10 has worked flawlessly in my 486, and with fast speeds too. Infact on that one card I'm running compactflash via IDE adapter, 48x CD-RW, 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy & 5.25 1.2MB Floppy, all work perfectly

The jumpers & info for that board is here: http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-disk-floppy- … SIO-V2-313.html

Basically as long as nothing is set to disabled by the jumpers all you need to concern yourself with is the speed jumpers (JP17 and JP16), I can use either speed 0 or speed 2 with my compactflash card, giving either 1000kbit/s or 2400kbit/s speeds respectively

Thanks for the information, that will be helpful.

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 32 of 45, by rick12373

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I got the KJD-IDE10. It does not have a serial port for the mouse and neither does the motherboard. Would I be able to run both the Promise DC-420 and the KJD-IDE10 at the same time so that I can use the serial port from the DC-420 for the mouse?

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 33 of 45, by TheMobRules

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rick12373 wrote:

I got the KJD-IDE10. It does not have a serial port for the mouse and neither does the motherboard. Would I be able to run both the Promise DC-420 and the KJD-IDE10 at the same time so that I can use the serial port from the DC-420 for the mouse?

I don't know the specifics of those controller cards, but you should be able to do that, provided that it is possible to disable the IDE/Floppy ports you're not using on the Promise card. Basically you need to ensure there are no conflicting resources between the two controllers.

Reply 34 of 45, by rick12373

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Would this work? I have the KJD-IDE10 which has CN4 and CN5 10 pin serial connectors on the card. See here:

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-disk-floppy- … SIO-V2-313.html

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I have the DB24 connector from the Promise DC-420 with the 10-pin connector on the end. Would I be able to connect this and then use one of these to convert it to a 9 pin female DB9 for a serial mouse? See here:

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Here is the adapter:

http://www.trianglecables.com/product/DB9-Fem … CFYJpfgodg8MNxg

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 35 of 45, by TheMobRules

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In that case, since the KJD has serial port connectors you can just plug the bracket you have to CN4 and set that connector to COM1.

You can use an adapter for DB9, but you would need a DB9 MALE to DB25 female. Or you could just get a DB9 bracket and plug that to your card.

Keep in mind that there are 2 different conventions for serial connector wiring, so if it doesn't work straight away you may need to use the other one:

http://www.bodenzord.com/archives/117

Reply 36 of 45, by rick12373

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TheMobRules wrote:
In that case, since the KJD has serial port connectors you can just plug the bracket you have to CN4 and set that connector to C […]
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In that case, since the KJD has serial port connectors you can just plug the bracket you have to CN4 and set that connector to COM1.

You can use an adapter for DB9, but you would need a DB9 MALE to DB25 female. Or you could just get a DB9 bracket and plug that to your card.

Keep in mind that there are 2 different conventions for serial connector wiring, so if it doesn't work straight away you may need to use the other one:

http://www.bodenzord.com/archives/117

Thanks for correcting me on the adapter! 😊

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 37 of 45, by rick12373

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So with the new I/O card card in there everything worked first time! Hard drive, floppy and CD-ROM all functioning. I also found a better ATX case that actually had the standoffs for ATX and AT motherboards. It may look like crap but it looks like everything is working now. I will not be able to test the serial mouse in the DB25 until the adapter arrives though. I attached the power switch on the back.

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486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 38 of 45, by rick12373

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So does anyone want this Promise DC420 I/O card for $5 + shipping? If not I will throw it away. I could not get it to work with CD-ROM but apart from that it was working.

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 39 of 45, by rick12373

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So I got my serial port adapter plugged in to the 10 pin serial port which is connected to the internal 10 pin serial port of my connector of KJD-IDE10 I/O card using the cable pictured earlier in this thread. When I boot, CuteMouse reports that it is installed at COM1 (03F8h/IRQ4) in mouse systems mode. When I try to test the mouse by running edit.exe I am unable to move the cursor around with mouse. Do I need to tell CuteMouse to use a different COM port? If so which one and how would I edit my startup files?

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card