Some just don't work. My cf to ide worked great until I updated my mb bios. Not it doesn't work at all. I'm currently waiting for https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-XTIDE-XT-IDE-OPT … 872.m2749.l2649 to arrive and see if it fixes my problem as I didn't backup my bios before flashing and cannot find a copy of it.

You're saying the bios just won't autodetect the card as a disk? What if you set the geometry manually as 2080 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors and LBA enabled? Failing that, what if you try 1024 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 headers and LBA disabled? I have the UM4981 which I believe is the same as yours except it has onboard I/O. What CPU are you using? I had trouble with a write-back CPU and had to hack the BIOS.

BTW jm8881: when you get that card I believe you don't want to actually move your IDE cable to it. The purpose of the card in your case is to get the software on the ROM chip on it to run as boot, taking over from your normal BIOS as a SCSI card would do to handle the hard drives.

Yeah, it won't detect. I've tried manually setting C/H/S to try to get at least some use out of it but I always get "Fixed Disk Error" on that drive when POSTing.. I'll try with your numbers to see if it yields any better results.

Appreciate the replies guys, sincerely. Been going bonkers trying to get this system working.
Have a SBPro2, Cirrus Logic VLB and a new-old-stock never-opened AT case for this build and really just want it up and working 🤣

Also turn off anything you see about multi-sector or block transfers, and 32-bit transfers if you see any options for those, for troubleshooting purposes.

Does the CF card work in other systems? Some CF cards are less compatible with older IDE controllers, and not all of them present themselves as fixed disk, but rather removable storage.

If the multi-sector or block transfers, and 32-bit transfers disabling wont work, then disable even the LBA capability. I have had problem even with that.

For older PC use <512M CF card.

The adapter works fine in a socket7 pentium-75 system, though that board has onboard IDE. I'll see about picking up a smaller card if the C/H/S and option-disabling don't work.

mpe wrote on 2020-11-03, 10:35:

For older PC use <512M CF card.

This. Try to read exact CHS with WHATIDE and set it manually.

I popped by my buddy's retro-electronics shop today and picked up a couple 120-400mb hard-drives, two known working, the 120mb is untested. Fingers crossed, can use one of these 'till smaller CF card shows up. (Though I'd REALLY like to have at least 800mb for this system, mainly for the .mix files on C&C and RA to avoid using my CDs as much as possumkibble.)

He also had something I'd never seen before ..

That's OSR 2.1 (95b). I have two of them, need a copy of OSR 2.5 (95c)

Update; It's working.
Update2; I'm a tool.
Update3; My 270-mb Maxtor HDD is working perfectly, no clicking/clunking.. And ScanDisk reports ZERO bad sectors. I'm dumbfounded.
Update4; The CF2IDE +1GB Card also detects now as well.

My giant VLB Cirrus Logic video card has an IDE header on the back of it (You already know EXACTLY what I'm gonna say) that I hadn't ever noticed.
Soon as I moved the IDE cable off my controller and onto the CL-VLB Video card, shit detects in the bios perfectly. (Haven't tried the CF2IDE, but HDDs and CDROM is detecting perfectly now)

I'm sorry for wasting y'alls time, but I do sincerely appreciate the feedback/advice given above. Thank you all! 😁

I do have a general question though.. I have, working, several cards and I need to make a choice between them.. Would like input/opinions if y'all've got a minutia to spare.

CT1600 - SB Pro 2.0
CT1740 - SB 16
CT3600 - SB 32 w/ 1-2MB memory installed (can't remember capacity I stuffed in it)
CT4520 - SB AWE64
Edit: All of these are ISA.

I play everything from the old Apogee Shareware like Arctic Adventure and Pharaoh's Tomb, Lemmings, and then mid-DOS era like Hillsfar, Keen series and Wolf3D, up to Doom, Duke3D and Command and Conquer / Warcraft 1-2

Which card would you guys recommend for this DX2-66 system?
(I've also got an SX-33, DX2-80/90, and a DX4-100.. I can plop any of them in the system, though I'd *like* to stick with the DX2-66 as it was the first computer I ever built from scratch so it holds special appeal to me.)

mashrien wrote on 2020-11-04, 17:06:

Update; It's working. Update2; I'm a tool. Update3; My 270-mb Maxtor HDD is working perfectly, no clicking/clunking.. And ScanDi […]
Show full quote

Update; It's working.
Update2; I'm a tool.
Update3; My 270-mb Maxtor HDD is working perfectly, no clicking/clunking.. And ScanDisk reports ZERO bad sectors. I'm dumbfounded.
Update4; The CF2IDE +1GB Card also detects now as well.

My giant VLB Cirrus Logic video card has an IDE header on the back of it (You already know EXACTLY what I'm gonna say) that I hadn't ever noticed.
Soon as I moved the IDE cable off my controller and onto the CL-VLB Video card, shit detects in the bios perfectly. (Haven't tried the CF2IDE, but HDDs and CDROM is detecting perfectly now)

I'm sorry for wasting y'alls time, but I do sincerely appreciate the feedback/advice given above. Thank you all! 😁

I wonder if you actually had a resource conflict between the IDE controller on your video card, and on your I/O controller. You should use whichever one is faster and disable the other one (there is probably a jumper).

jakethompson1 wrote on 2020-11-04, 22:12:

I wonder if you actually had a resource conflict between the IDE controller on your video card, and on your I/O controller. You should use whichever one is faster and disable the other one (there is probably a jumper).

Unfortunately the controllers I have seem to be rather obscure so I've been unable to find any documentation that would allow jumper configuration changes. I'm pretty much stuck with "hope the last dude left them in a functional state".

mashrien wrote on 2020-11-05, 00:52:

jakethompson1 wrote on 2020-11-04, 22:12:

I wonder if you actually had a resource conflict between the IDE controller on your video card, and on your I/O controller. You should use whichever one is faster and disable the other one (there is probably a jumper).

Unfortunately the controllers I have seem to be rather obscure so I've been unable to find any documentation that would allow jumper configuration changes. I'm pretty much stuck with "hope the last dude left them in a functional state".

If you post a picture of them, someone might be able to give advice. Sometimes it even involves tracing known locations on the ISA connector to jumpers to figure out which controls an IRQ for example.

The combination I'm using at the moment is the Cirrus Logic VLB for video and currently IDE as I cannot get the stupid interface to disable (regardless of "JP3" setting.. Perhaps it's the soldered joint middle-left?)
Along with the AWE64. -- I'd prefer the SB32 as it has OPL3 AND CQM or w/e it's called, configurable via software, but if it's inserted into the mobo, IDE detection fails on the Cirrus Logic, eventhough it doesn't actually have an IDE connector, just the vacant solder joints for it.

The SIIG controller is the newest/fastest I've got, I think, and it's what I'm using for floppy and serial I/O. If I can disable the CL-VLB Video's IDE, I'd like to use this SIIG for HDD/CD as well.

Split between here and next post.

Next set of images.

The CT3600 SB32 conflicts/overwrites any other IDE controller and won't allow them to detect in the bios. There is not actual pinout soldered to the board, just a blank socket for it. I'm assuming the jumper right next to it is to disable the IDE interface, but again, there's no actual pins there so I can't jumper it without soldering the board (something I'm capable of doing, just want confirmation before I go about modifying a collectors item)

The ideal IDE controller would be this VL400GW VLB bad boy, but it gives errors even with just a floppy connected (seems the card is dead~ish)

EDIT: I have a very soft BRASS brush (like a giant toothbrush) that I use with some DeOxIT contact cleaner to clean the contacts on any card upon first installation, just to make sure I'm not mucking up the mint-condition new-old-stock Socket3 board I'm using (the ECS-UM4980). But if this board ends up being a problem, I've got another like-new Socket3, though I've as-yet been unable to locate a model number on the board. Will have to power it up and see.

(PS; I know where 8 more mint-condition socket3 boards are here in texas, they're $100/ea if anyone's looking for sock3 boards.)

I use industrial CFs. Transcend is more easiest of all to get.

Cheers,