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Tosh T3100e BIOS hack ? and my refurb proj

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First post, by Xymox

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SO I am in the middle of doing extensive refurb of a few 3100e. Fun device 😀

I really need the ISA slot for things, but I really need more then 40MB of HD space. So I was wondering if anyone has tried hacking the EPROM BIOS ? It can't be as simple as just changing the CHS numbers to bigger ones in the BIOS can it ? Even I could maybe do that. I would need to grab a EPROM burner, eraser and chips, but I have done that type of work long ago. Maybe I could text search the BIOS and alter those CHS numbers ? Cant be that easy right ?

I have replaced ALL the caps in the unit and subbed in better types and done mods to improve the plasma performance.

I am doing a playlist of vids as I go..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeJE6lTLR9o&l … BHskrXQ&index=1

My next big thing is I will need to max out RAM. I understand a bit of rewiring on the RAM modules can make generic modules work. I don't suppose anyone is making those ? Less soldering for me 😀 Plus I gotta figure out the right base module, so, if someone had them already they might sell, that would make life good for me 😀 hehe..

Reply 1 of 3, by rasz_pl

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I seem to remember Toshiba hmm 1800? 1900? thread here or on vcf with someone modding bios hmmm
/searching sadly 5200 so much later model Toshiba T5200 mods and upgrades

The easiest ways are plugging xtide bios in ISA slot, spare firmware socket if machine has one, embedding it in original eprom if there is space, or searching for BIOS HDD table and modding one of the fixed types. You will most likely have to correct BIOS checksum and that might be a problem depending on bios code/algo used etc.

https://github.com/raszpl/sigrok-disk FM/MFM/RLL decoder
https://github.com/raszpl/FIC-486-GAC-2-Cache-Module (AT&T Globalyst)
https://github.com/raszpl/386RC-16 ram board
https://github.com/raszpl/Zenith_ZBIOS Zenith Z-386 MFM-300 ZBIOS disassembly

Reply 2 of 3, by Xymox

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Yep. I can do a much bigger drive easy that way. BUT.. I want that ISA for a SCSI card and also I want it for a IEEE-488 GPIB card..

Only 1 8bit ISA slot.

So.. I am thinking hacking the BIOS. This might be old enough that maybe it does not check for a checksum ?

Reply 3 of 3, by rasz_pl

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That Toshiba T5200 thread should have details about bios modding.
edit: let me know it you get stuck with bios and ill look into it in dissasembler

https://github.com/raszpl/sigrok-disk FM/MFM/RLL decoder
https://github.com/raszpl/FIC-486-GAC-2-Cache-Module (AT&T Globalyst)
https://github.com/raszpl/386RC-16 ram board
https://github.com/raszpl/Zenith_ZBIOS Zenith Z-386 MFM-300 ZBIOS disassembly

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