ediflorianUS wrote on 2020-12-22, 21:48:

So it needs a bios update ... hmm... probably you also need to pull the chip to do that ... I am great but I am not that great o […]
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my03 wrote on 2020-12-22, 16:52:

I guess it complains simply because it will not recognize anything other than the (three?) Conner models that it would actually support when you use the original bios (i assume you don't use a modded bios?).

I use AnyDrive on a different 286 (Its a Victor/Sirius 286P) successfully but i don't think that model is as locked down as the Toshibas. But i "think" i saw someone (in the middle of this thread) that had some modded bios also for your model (look for it) and with luck, that version removes the whitelist...

So it needs a bios update ... hmm... probably you also need to pull the chip to do that ... I am great but I am not that great of a user...
I felt that some steps I skipped by mistake , and hoped that I can remediate(redo) those steps....

If i wont succeed(classic way) I will probably abandon my upgrade and restore factory drive....

Reading other posts about EZ-Drive , I gathered there should be a setting Type 9 in bios ? ”If you system bios dose not have auto config or userdefind, select Type 9” ...

Hmm seems like there isn't any BIOS patch available already for the t3100e.
so this seems like a good time to introduce my project to this forum.
https://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/264877993192

This is an expansion card that goes into the special toshiba expansion slot.
It provides an XT-IDE BIOS in ROM as well as an CF card slot that's easily accessible from the back of the machine.
It is compatible with many Toshiba portables from the T1100+ all the way up to the T5200

One of the more interesting features that i think many people here will find useful, is that it can also easily be configured to control the internal IDE controller on machines that have one. (T3100e, T3200sx(c), T5100, T5200(c))
This allows you to have both an easily accessible CF card slot as well as the ability to change out the internal drive without running into the restrictions of the Toshiba BIOS.

I hope some of you will find this helpful

Oh, that's nice. It would be great to know what type of connector is used there, as it should be fairly easy to make a breaakout box for external ISA slot.

ConventionalMemories,

excuse my ignorance here... While quite awesome what you have designed here...(of course 😀 ), but when you say special Toshiba slot, do you mean the smaller expansion slot available next to the ISA slot (on the T5200 for example - i.e the 8 bit Toshiba
proprietary "A" form factor slot)? Or would it be more a replacement that fits in the floppy space but connects to the IDE (a little bit hard to tell from the Ebay-link tbh)

adalbert wrote on 2020-12-22, 23:01:

Oh, that's nice. It would be great to know what type of connector is used there, as it should be fairly easy to make a breaakout box for external ISA slot.

Yes it certainly is, I had to search quite a while for them.
The originals used by Toshiba In many different places in there portables are the "KEL 8800 series", these are pretty hard to find NOS and aren't made anymore AFAIK.
Then there is also the "3M P50 series" these can be found a bit easier, although most retailers have minimum orders of 200+pcs.

These are the exact model numbers for the expansion slot connectors, 60pin is 8Bit ISA, 60 + 40 for the full 16bit ISA
Toshiba used them with hooks(for PCB ankering) and flanges (for easier alignment) but the ones without should also work.
KEL
60-pin:
8801-060-170L-F Normal
8800-060-170L-F no hooks
8802-060-170L-F no hooks, no flanges
40-pin:
8801-040-170L-F Normal
8800-040-170L-F no hooks
8802-040-170L-F no hooks, no flanges

3M
60-pin:
P50-060S-RR1-EA Normal
P50-060S-SR1-EA no hooks
P51-060S-SR1-EA no hooks, no flanges
40-pin:
P50-040S-RR1-EA Normal
P50-040S-SR1-EA no hooks
P51-040S-SR1-EA no hooks, no flanges

Thanks for the info! Although the availability isn't great indeed.

my03 wrote on 2020-12-22, 23:06:

ConventionalMemories,

excuse my ignorance here... While quite awesome what you have designed here...(of course 😀 ), but when you say special Toshiba slot, do you mean the smaller expansion slot available next to the ISA slot (on the T5200 for example - i.e the 8 bit Toshiba
proprietary "A" form factor slot)? Or would it be more a replacement that fits in the floppy space but connects to the IDE (a little bit hard to tell from the Ebay-link tbh)

Hi, I'm sorry I should have clarified that a bit more. This is indeed the external expansion slot, Always on the back of the Toshiba portables (except the T1600 has it on the left side)
On the T5200 this is labled "EXP" above the slot. I've attached a picture of the card installed in my T5200

I think Toshiba did sometimes call it "slot A " but in most documentation it is just called "Toshiba proprietary slot"

ConventionalMemories,

thats absolutely awesome. Ordered one from your Ebay-page just now. Thx heaps for "concocting" this device 😀

adalbert wrote on 2020-12-22, 23:39:

Thanks for the info! Although the availability isn't great indeed.

yeah availability is a bummer, I got mine here (NOS KEL), but it appears that they are out of stock now.
EDIT: I looked at the wrong one. 18 left in stock
https://www.connectorpeople.com/Connector/KEL … 8/8801-060-170L

If you want some, I still have quite a few (for now).

my03 wrote on 2020-12-22, 23:59:

ConventionalMemories,

thats absolutely awesome. Ordered one from your Ebay-page just now. Thx heaps for "concocting" this device 😀

Thanks again for ordering one.
In our conversation via eBay you raised an important question, Does using this together with one of IanB's modified BIOS's cause any conflicts?
I'm posting this here as well as it might be of interest for other people.
So, from the short testing I did just now, It Doesn't. I'm not quite sure and I'll have to do some more testing in the coming days.
I'll make sure to post an update here.

Thank you for your suggestions , but for me its not worth 37euros. (I prefer to spend that money on half of year of insurance on my car)
And I have about 25 hdd on IDE that theoretically I can test . I know that larger one will go without a hitch , problem is I waist about 99.9 % of it (using 40-100mbs). A software solution would be preferable . Bios is Award Revision 00 - date : 10/04 ,88 (at least that what I get from IBM DOS system checking....)

ediflorianUS wrote on 2020-12-25, 21:01:

Thank you for your suggestions , but for me its not worth 37euros. (I prefer to spend that money on half of year of insurance on my car)
And I have about 25 hdd on IDE that theoretically I can test . I know that larger one will go without a hitch , problem is I waist about 99.9 % of it (using 40-100mbs). A software solution would be preferable . Bios is Award Revision 00 - date : 10/04 ,88 (at least that what I get from IBM DOS system checking....)

Sure, I understand that my card isn't a solution for everyone.

I actually remember having IDE issues on one of my T3100e's, I don't exactly remember what I was trying to accomplish. But I do remember that the issue was related to the BIOS version.
I think I ended up fixing it by switching the BIOS from V3.00 (1988) to V4.00 (1990).
(You can see the version number in the Toshiba "Test3" utility)
I don't know if these are available for downloading anywhere, but if you can't find it I'd be happy to make a dump and upload it here for you.
I don't know if that will fix your particular issue but it might be worth a try.

ediflorianUS wrote on 2020-12-25, 21:01:

Thank you for your suggestions , but for me its not worth 37euros. (I prefer to spend that money on half of year of insurance on my car)

To me, 37 EUR is a very reasonable price. That's roughly $45 USD. I can't imagine how you could get car insurance for that.

here is some stuff for the Toshiba :
http://www.steptail.com/toshiba_t-series_supp … s_and_resources

(yes insurance is expensive in USA , I live in Est-Europe , we are a bit low-cost here ,its total about 90$-100$ depending on firm and car engine you insure/year) but computer parts were mostly discarded (e-waste) because many people dont even know these days that they are fixable.... got for parts a Asus F5R that only needed a proper bios reset- problems with old ver. bios + bad bios battery.) 2020 is a bit of odd-ball exception, as prices gone way up on chinese it crap, but this was the 100% reality before march.

My apologies. I assumed you were in the US because of your username, and that there had been a currency conversion error.

ConvectionalMemories' product is surely a labor of love -- not a moneymaking endeavor. I've designed low-volume products like that. After components, assembly, shipping, eBay and PayPal, there's not much left. Thanks for making it available!

its great product , but its not for me. (not just yet ).

I was super happy whan i saw ConventionalMemories design and product. It is quite brilliant imho and i'm very excited to try it out 😀

adalbert wrote on 2020-12-05, 16:06:

I have T3200SXC and I found out that not every mouse works with it. What is the model you are trying to use? 3-button Logitech M […]
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shimart wrote on 2020-12-05, 15:39:

However, I am having a problem with the <Serial Mouse> not working on the My T3200sx.
If someone knows how to fix it, please give me some advice.

I have T3200SXC and I found out that not every mouse works with it. What is the model you are trying to use? 3-button Logitech Mouse Man worked out of the box, but I had problems with other devices. I had to re-wire connectors in order to make them work. I modded A4Tech mouse by disconnecting pin 5 (GND) in DB9 connector and connecting it to pin 6 (DSR). I also bridged pin 4 (DTR) with pin 6.

Here are some details about getting mouse to work: Re: Connector wiring NCE-860/PC mouse (late 80s serial port)

BTW I dumped T3200SXC BIOS while ago if anyone needs it: Re: 80386 BIOS image collection
and here are schematics for replacement PSU DIY AT DC-DC power supply (replacement for Toshiba T3200SXC and others)

Three DB9 mice arrived and tested.
All three mice worked fine on my T3200SX.
I recommend the DEXXA mouse, which you can buy cheaply on eBay.
It works very well and I like it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dexxa-2-Button-Combo … 872.m2749.l2649

ediflorianUS wrote on 2020-12-26, 20:16:

its great product , but its not for me. (not just yet ).

my03 wrote on 2020-12-28, 12:48:

I was super happy whan i saw ConventionalMemories design and product. It is quite brilliant imho and i'm very excited to try it out 😀

konrad_pentium wrote on 2020-12-26, 16:57:

My apologies. I assumed you were in the US because of your username, and that there had been a currency conversion error.

ConvectionalMemories' product is surely a labor of love -- not a moneymaking endeavor. I've designed low-volume products like that. After components, assembly, shipping, eBay and PayPal, there's not much left. Thanks for making it available!

Thank you, great to see other people so enthusiastic about these Toshiba's.
So, this might be a great place to ask what other features would you like to see in a possible future rev 2.0.?
I was thinking maybe an Adlib compatible sound card (OPL3)? Or/and maybe a joystick/gameport?
What other features do you feel like you are missing in these Toshiba's?

ConventionalMemories wrote on 2020-12-30, 13:02:

What other features do you feel like you are missing in these Toshiba's?

Seems like you've already developed the killer product! Since the T5200 has ISA slots, that would seem to fill the expansion need.

If anything is lacking, it would be a USB port.

But since learning that compact flash uses the IDE interface, that's no longer really a problem. I've since added CF interfaces to several other DOS machines that I still use regularly.

Until recently, I used Laplink for file transfer.

Maybe for some folks, just reproducing Toshiba's proprietary memory sticks would be a huge help? Or maybe just put system RAM (that could be populated or not) on your board?

konrad_pentium wrote on 2020-12-30, 13:23:

Seems like you've already developed the killer product! Since the T5200 has ISA slots, that would seem to fill the expansion ne […]
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ConventionalMemories wrote on 2020-12-30, 13:02:

What other features do you feel like you are missing in these Toshiba's?

Seems like you've already developed the killer product! Since the T5200 has ISA slots, that would seem to fill the expansion need.

If anything is lacking, it would be a USB port.

But since learning that compact flash uses the IDE interface, that's no longer really a problem. I've since added CF interfaces to several other DOS machines that I still use regularly.

Until recently, I used Laplink for file transfer.

Maybe for some folks, just reproducing Toshiba's proprietary memory sticks would be a huge help? Or maybe just put system RAM (that could be populated or not) on your board?

Yes, on the T3200sx(c) and T5200(c) you already have some ISA expansion slots. But it's mainly the other Toshiba's that it would be useful.

Making some of those 40pin simm's is an interesting idea as well. Might be worth looking into.

LE.
Update information....
Changed HDD to a Seagate 4gb ST34313A and had no more controller errors , It formated copy-ed PC-DOS 7 ,

I can Report that Seagate 4GB - ST34313A (firmw. 3.23 /SN : 7DL01RN2) working perfectly , installed the Ontrack 9.57 and repartitioned second time to aprox 3x1.5gbs fat 16. (I think even fat32 would be ok -did not try but it is selectable)
all good , all great , no bios upgrade (just diffrent hdd) needed.

Will try installing ST25th anniversary see if it runs.
(I can report that win3.1/95 did not run/start)