Can't get a VLB MIO to detect a CD drive \ VOGONS

Can't get a VLB MIO to detect a CD drive

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First post, by jheronimus

Posted on 2017-01-15, 18:32

jheronimus Offline

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Hi, all

I have an AMD 5x86/VLB system. Here are the specs:

AMD 5x86
16MB RAM
Chaintech 486SLP/4SLD3 motherboard
ASKA SST-2946 VLB multi I/O
1.6GB Samsung HDD

It runs MS DOS 6.22. The HDD is connected as primary master IDE device, the CD drive is connected as secondary master. I've used Phil's MS-DOS starter pack to install the CD driver. However, this is what I get on DOS boot:

(all images are clickable)

This is how the BIOS device table looks. I've ran BIOS drive autodetection routine, but I'm not sure how the drive should be configured, since the BIOS only has options for various HDD geometry.

I've tried two different drives:

- a 4x Creative;
- a 12x Pioneer — I used this one on other builds.

In both cases the drives spin up on boot and after the DOS is finished loading and gives the abovementioned error message.

What am I missing? Thanks!

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Reply 1 of 7, by Nipedley

Posted on 2017-01-15, 21:41

Nipedley Offline

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What are your jumper settings on the drives? Are you using them on two seperate IDE channels and seperate cables, where they woudl both be set as Master? If on the same channel/cable then one will need to be set as Slave. I've also found cable select to not play nice with my VLB 486

On my 486 you don't need to specify any drive at all in BIOS, I just have my D set as None, only HDD is specified. For the record, I have my primary IDE channel with HDD set as Master on a single cable, and secondary IDE channel with CD drive set as Master on a single cable

Have you tried booting from a Win98 startup floppy and checking CD access to rule out the driver from Phil's pack?

Reply 2 of 7, by Ampera

Posted on 2017-01-15, 22:35

Ampera Offline

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This is an easy fix.

Remove any previous driver installation you might have for CD drives.

Make sure your drive is connected to the first channel (First port on the M/I/O card, can be master or slave), and set it to Cable Select.

Now install the CD1.SYS driver as you would normally.

Profit.

Reply 3 of 7, by jheronimus

Posted on 2017-01-16, 05:16

jheronimus Offline

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Nipedley wrote:
What are your jumper settings on the drives? Are you using them on two seperate IDE channels and seperate cables, where they woudl both be set as Master? If on the same channel/cable then one will need to be set as Slave. I've also found cable select to not play nice with my VLB 486

HDD — primary master.
CD — secondary master.

So they're both on separate channels and explicitly set to master.

Nipedley wrote:
On my 486 you don't need to specify any drive at all in BIOS, I just have my D set as None, only HDD is specified. For the record, I have my primary IDE channel with HDD set as Master on a single cable, and secondary IDE channel with CD drive set as Master on a single cable

My CD is set to "none" right now (you can see the last BIOS screenshot in the original post).

Nipedley wrote:
Have you tried booting from a Win98 startup floppy and checking CD access to rule out the driver from Phil's pack?

Nope, will try that.

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Reply 4 of 7, by jheronimus

Posted on 2017-01-16, 05:19

jheronimus Offline

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Ampera wrote:
This is an easy fix. […]
Show full quote
This is an easy fix.

Remove any previous driver installation you might have for CD drives.

Make sure your drive is connected to the first channel (First port on the M/I/O card, can be master or slave), and set it to Cable Select.

Now install the CD1.SYS driver as you would normally.

Profit.

Right now they are set as:

HDD — primary master
CD — secondary master.

But if I understand you correctly the issue is that they need to be:

HDD — primary master
CD — primary slave?

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Reply 5 of 7, by kixs

Posted on 2017-01-16, 07:37

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I'd try it as a slave drive (like Ampera suggested). Set jumpers accordingly.

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Reply 6 of 7, by Ampera

Posted on 2017-01-16, 11:24

Ampera Offline

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You need to set the other drive as Cable Select. Otherwise it will not work. It's weird, I know, but my DTC EIDE controller demands that.

And yes, the CD drive needs to be on Primary Slave, with the boot drive on Primary Master, but as I said, do NOT set the CD to slave. It needs to be set to Cable Select even if your using a 40 pin cable.

Reply 7 of 7, by kixs

Posted on 2017-01-16, 13:01

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Ampera wrote:
You need to set the other drive as Cable Select.

I'd say it's more of a drive dependent feature. But you never know till you try 😉

@jheronimus:

About IDE 2nd channel... some BIOS's have an option do enable it. Check your BIOS.

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