(XTIDE) Motherboard BIOS keeps re-enabling hard drive type \ VOGONS

(XTIDE) Motherboard BIOS keeps re-enabling hard drive type

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First post, by eesz34

Posted on 2022-02-28, 23:29

eesz34 Offline

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I have a Compaq 386 with onboard IDE and thought I'd try XTIDE.

The only way I can see to disable IDE in the BIOS and still get XTIDE to detect the drive is to set it to type zero and leave it set to 'primary' rather than 'disabled'. To explain further, when I navigate through the BIOS to change the fixed disk settings, it first displays the drive type for the master and slave (I only have a master) and the only options are drive type. I set it to zero as the only other options are some non-zero number. After that, I'm forced to choose 'primary' or 'disabled'. If I choose 'disabled', XTIDE won't find the drive. If I choose 'primary' it detects the drive and all is well. The next time I reboot, XTIDE won't find the drive, I get a fixed disk error that I *know* is coming from the onboard BIOS, and when I go into BIOS it essentially tells me it fixed the drive type for me (thanks...ugh).

I set it back to type zero and 'primary' and it works again for one boot cycle.

Has anyone else seen this? The only fix I can come up with with some DOS utility that restores the CMOS on every boot.

Reply 1 of 6, by Horun

Posted on 2022-03-01, 00:37

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My guess is that the UMB space that the XT-IDE rom needs is being used or blocked by the Compaq BIOS. That is just a guess.....
Have you tried using MSD or other tool to see which upper memory spaces are open and set the XT-IDE to one of those or have you already done that ???
Just a guess....and most likely wrong ;p

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Reply 2 of 6, by eesz34

Posted on 2022-03-01, 00:58

eesz34 Offline

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Horun wrote on 2022-03-01, 00:37:

My guess is that the UMB space that the XT-IDE rom needs is being used or blocked by the Compaq BIOS. That is just a guess.....
Have you tried using MSD or other tool to see which upper memory spaces are open and set the XT-IDE to one of those or have you already done that ???
Just a guess....and most likely wrong ;p

The address range that the NIC is assigning to it appears to be free. The NIC utility blocked off another range as unavailable, and I used Checkit to look for gaps beforehand.. The BIOS also now lists the address range of the XTIDE EPROM as "option ROM" so even that is acknowledging it's existence.

Reply 3 of 6, by maxtherabbit

Posted on 2022-03-02, 14:53

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why not just set the BIOS drive type to something that has <= the CHS of your physical drive to avoid the error?

Reply 4 of 6, by eesz34

Posted on 2022-03-03, 14:06

eesz34 Offline

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maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-03-02, 14:53:

why not just set the BIOS drive type to something that has <= the CHS of your physical drive to avoid the error?

Would that work? I thought this would cause a conflict between the onboard BIOS and XTIDE.

Reply 5 of 6, by maxtherabbit

Posted on 2022-03-03, 15:05

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eesz34 wrote on 2022-03-03, 14:06:

maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-03-02, 14:53:

why not just set the BIOS drive type to something that has <= the CHS of your physical drive to avoid the error?

Would that work? I thought this would cause a conflict between the onboard BIOS and XTIDE.

It will work fine, XUB will just take over and ignore whatever the BIOS says

Reply 6 of 6, by keropi

Posted on 2022-03-03, 15:27

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indeed it will work - an amstrad system I have with onboard IDE controller and XUB on a NIC needs a random HDD declared in BIOS else the IDE controller is getting disabled and XUB will never find a HDD to initialize...
my guess is that OP's system does some autodetection in start-up and finds the HDD itself

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