VOGONS


First post, by Zerthimon

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Hi guys!

I'm looking for LBA BIOS that Promise offered for a small fee ($20-$25 ?) back in the day.
It currently has BIOS ver 1.4, which doesn't have LBA. I'd appreciate it very much if someone can post an LBA version of the BIOS.

Edit: typo

Reply 1 of 34, by Zerthimon

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Any version of the BIOS higher than 1.4 is also welcomed!

Reply 2 of 34, by kixs

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I can check what version is on my card later tonight.

Requests here!

Reply 3 of 34, by Zerthimon

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@kixs by all means, please do!
Thanks!

Reply 4 of 34, by Zerthimon

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@kixs have you checked the version of your controller's BIOS ?

Reply 5 of 34, by kixs

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Zerthimon wrote on 2021-01-21, 10:37:

@kixs have you checked the version of your controller's BIOS ?

Finally did it ... 🤣

ededKqmm.jpg

Firmware is newer, BIOS is the same. It also doesn't do LBA 🙁

Did you manage to get the LBA version in the mean time?

Requests here!

Reply 6 of 34, by Zerthimon

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@kixs Wow, thanks for the info !
No, unfortunately, I'm still looking for them LBA version.

Reply 7 of 34, by Zerthimon

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Looking for the owners of this controller!
What versions of BIOS and firmware do you have ?

Reply 8 of 34, by Surrat

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There is a DC-200 on ebay right now that seems to have the LBA chips.

It has the instruction addendum for the LBA bios, and an extra set of bios chips included.

Just search for Promise DC-200

(no relation to seller)

Reply 9 of 34, by Zerthimon

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@Surrat Wow! Awesome, thanks a lot for this info!
I'll try to contact the seller.
Will report the results here.

Reply 10 of 34, by Zerthimon

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Well, unfortunately, the seller ignores my messages. So, still looking for the LBA BIOS.

Reply 11 of 34, by Zerthimon

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The seller replied finally, saying that they do not have the programmer to read the EPROMs. The shipping to my country would be about 1/2 of the item cost.
If anyone would like to buy the controller and share the BIOS - that would be awesome.

Reply 12 of 34, by ltning

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Zerthimon wrote on 2021-08-18, 18:19:

The seller replied finally, saying that they do not have the programmer to read the EPROMs. The shipping to my country would be about 1/2 of the item cost.
If anyone would like to buy the controller and share the BIOS - that would be awesome.

I would have considered buying it but I can't find it - is it still up, or did someone buy it? Perhaps the seller could put one of us in contact with the buyer? I'd be happy to buy the buyer a chip reader :)

/Eirik

The Floppy Museum - on a floppy, on a 286: http://floppy.museum
286-24/4MB/ET4kW32/GUS+SBPro2
386DX-40/20MB/CL5434 ISA/GUSExtreme
486BL-100/32MB/ET4kW32p VLB/GUSPnP/AWELegacy

~ love over gold ~

Reply 13 of 34, by kixs

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It seems it was sold just minutes ago on US site.

Requests here!

Reply 14 of 34, by ltning

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kixs wrote on 2021-08-20, 11:58:

It seems it was sold just minutes ago on US site.

Yeah I had a hunch the seller wouldn't ship far, so I went there and snatched it.
It ships via a colleague of mine in the US; once it reaches me I'll dump the BIOS and .... what's the "correct" way of making it available to y'all? vogonsdrivers?

Now I wish someone would do the same for the DC4030VL-1... I have the BIOS for VL-2 (can't upload it since I bought it from a guy who sells upgrades, so that would be a bit of a d***e move on my part), but that does not work on the -1.

/Eirik

The Floppy Museum - on a floppy, on a 286: http://floppy.museum
286-24/4MB/ET4kW32/GUS+SBPro2
386DX-40/20MB/CL5434 ISA/GUSExtreme
486BL-100/32MB/ET4kW32p VLB/GUSPnP/AWELegacy

~ love over gold ~

Reply 15 of 34, by Zerthimon

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Whoa that's a great news @Itning!
Looking at the photos the seller provided - the EPROMS containing the LBA BIOS are installed on the controller and the extra chips in the small box have previous version.
My controller has even older version of BIOS, so it'd be great to have both versions.

Reply 16 of 34, by ltning

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Zerthimon wrote on 2021-08-20, 14:48:

Whoa that's a great news @Itning!
Looking at the photos the seller provided - the EPROMS containing the LBA BIOS are installed on the controller and the extra chips in the small box have previous version.
My controller has even older version of BIOS, so it'd be great to have both versions.

Okay I got version 1.60 and 1.80 read off the chips now. Where should I dump them?
I don't know the difference, but I think both have LBA support since the "X" chip is v1.52 on both, the unix cmp command confirms they are exactly the same, and running `strings` on the file shows LBA mode being mentioned.

/Eirik

The Floppy Museum - on a floppy, on a 286: http://floppy.museum
286-24/4MB/ET4kW32/GUS+SBPro2
386DX-40/20MB/CL5434 ISA/GUSExtreme
486BL-100/32MB/ET4kW32p VLB/GUSPnP/AWELegacy

~ love over gold ~

Reply 17 of 34, by ltning

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ltning wrote on 2021-08-30, 21:51:

Okay I got version 1.60 and 1.80 read off the chips now. Where should I dump them?

Ok I'll attach the files here for now, while I wait for an upload account on vogonsdrivers..
Enjoy!

(NOTE - untested by me; I'll be testing this tomorrow....)

/Eirik

The Floppy Museum - on a floppy, on a 286: http://floppy.museum
286-24/4MB/ET4kW32/GUS+SBPro2
386DX-40/20MB/CL5434 ISA/GUSExtreme
486BL-100/32MB/ET4kW32p VLB/GUSPnP/AWELegacy

~ love over gold ~

Reply 18 of 34, by Zerthimon

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Wow! Incredible! Thanks a lot!
One question, what eproms are there ? 27c256 I guess ?

P.S. Looked inside the archive - 32k roms, so yeah 27c256.

Last edited by Zerthimon on 2021-08-30, 22:33. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 19 of 34, by ltning

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Zerthimon wrote on 2021-08-30, 22:26:

Wow! Incredible! Thanks a lot.
One question, what eproms are there ? 27c256 I guess ?

Yeah. Actually three different variants/vendors across the two sets of chips, with no coherence between them. I don't think Promise had a single source of these :P

/Eirik

The Floppy Museum - on a floppy, on a 286: http://floppy.museum
286-24/4MB/ET4kW32/GUS+SBPro2
386DX-40/20MB/CL5434 ISA/GUSExtreme
486BL-100/32MB/ET4kW32p VLB/GUSPnP/AWELegacy

~ love over gold ~