Reply 60 of 176, by Vipersan
Well ..my project is currently on hold whilst I wait for yet another ESS sound card to arrive
an ES1868F...which hopefully will be easier to get drivers for..
Phil covered this one I believe in one of his 'lab' videos.
I also have a 3com dual connect ISA winging its way to me from a friend.
This will give me a BNC coax and Ethernet connection.
So really ..I'm now ready to install win 3.11
These 2 cards will complete the build and fill up all the ISA slots.
So ..I will have the first 8 bit slot holding the XT-IE card with a 64mb CF.
The second 8 bit slot has the Serial port card ..for mouse etc.
The first 16 bit slot holds the VGA card
the next 16 bit slot ..currently empty and waiting for the sound card..
Next slot holds an Adeptec SCSI card ..
The next holds the hard drive/floppy controller
The last slot being also empty and hopefully will be used for a network card.
Currently I have MS dos 6.22 on the CF ...and on the 100mb Conner ...but also on an 820mb scsi hard drive hooked to the adaptec.
Booting goes directly to the XT-IDE menu unless I press A: for floppy
I also have a 5.25" B: drive not yet hooked into the system.
Selecting any of those 3 hard drives allows me to boot and once in DOS can see and access either of the other 2 hard drives.
Thus I will have an easy way to get files in and out with the CF card ..plus more storage space on the SCSI ...as the Internal bios prevents adding anything larger than 100mb to the primary IDE controller card.
..or indeed the XTIDE bios...Only by going SCSI can I exceed this 100mb limit....unless I can find a more recent bios for the mobo.
I have replaced the fan in the PSU which was totally seized ...
Also hooked up the turbo switch ...
I think now that I have 4mb system/expanded ram win 3.11 is practical ..though may run a little slow.(please let me know if win 3.11 is not practical on a 286 ?)
All in all ..progress albeit slow is being made.
Now ..I have one 5.25 inch bay left ..and intend to fit a CD drive in it...
..but Have chosen to add a scsi CD drive...since the adaptec is already in there.
..and hopefully avoid any bios problems with the WG-GEAR bios this way....as control would be given to the adaptec card.
Anyhoo ..a couple of photos to be going on with.
..appologies for catching my cats litter tray in the last photo...but it did prompt me to clean it out...🤣