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Amstrad 386SX Help needed

J

jimmy74

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Jun 6, 2013
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Hi after years (around 10 years) I pulled out my old Amstrad 386SX with it's original SVGA monitor and keyboard. I also had the original PS-2 mouse but I can't find it now. Anyways the last time I had it out the battery had leaked and one of the battery paths had corroded so I bypassed it with a short peice of wire and the PC was working perfectly after that.
Now it turns on, calculates ram then I get a HD controller error. I've tried cleaning it up, the FD connector pins on the MB had all turned green, but I suppose that is because the FD was not connected at all. The HD connector pins seem ok both on the HD and on the MB. I've also tried resetting the bios, all it says is that the HD selection has not been changed.
Is there anyway to fix this? Is there anything such as an ISA controller board for IDE HD's?

thanks
J.
 
There are ISA cards with IDE controllers. Last time I checked the prices tended to be under $10.

Though if you are having corrosion issues on the pins of floppy controller, I would check to make sure that no corrosion is on the IDE hard drive. Maybe also try switching hard drive cables.
 
Yes I have checked the HD for corrosion and there isn't any nor on the IDE connector pins on the MB. I have also used various IDE cables but nothing seems to change it, I think the problem is a corroded path somewhare around the IDE controller chip on the MB. I have checked ebay for that sort of ISA card for IDE drives but all I can find are the cards fro MFM drives. Can you post a link?
 
What PC's were these cards usually used in? 286's? Would this card make my HD bootable as a primary drive?
 
These were designed for 286, 386 and early 486 machines, mainly to replace the existing controller so larger drives could be installed. Most of the IDE controllers not mounted on a sound card would default to booting the system on the primary drive. Some had options to turn off boot and become a secondary controller so more drives could be installed. Double check jumper settings when installing. It was a generic design using common chips. I have a Western Digital branded model which is very similar to what I linked to.

Note: I linked to a card for purposes of illustration. I don't know if that is the best card available for your specific uses. I do believe it would work. I might be wrong.
 
I do have an old soundblaster pro 16 ISA card with an ide connector on it. I immagine that this wouldn't be bootable but it does have 2 small solder point right under the connector called JP1 where one would find 2 jumper pins. Also I can see a word that seems to be 1 ochrdy or I ochrdy written near the jumper points.
 
I managed to get my hands on an old 486 with all the 286 specs, that is all ISA slots, 30 pin SIMM, no onboard IDE or floppy connects. Therefore I have tried all my old HD's including the 40mb Seagate that was in my Amstrad and together with another HD they are not booting therefore I think the problem is with the HD and not the onboard controller of my Amstrad. Is there any way to fix the HD? It had all the original amstrad branded windows 95 and drivers on it.
 
What is the model number of the Seagate drive? The ST351 will probably not work with modern controllers if jumpered for XT usage. Also, there was one other jumper that was dependent on system for bus reset. I have no idea where to find what bus reset setting goes with what controllers. Stason.org has a jumper reference for what I expect your drive to be.

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-drives-hdd/seagate/ST351A-43MB-3-5-SL-IDE-AT.html
 
I've taken a look at the HD it is a Seagate Model ST351A/X with the 2 power plugs and 12pin jumper configuration. According to the pin layout in the link you posted, it has pins 11+12 jumpered, pins 7+8 jumpered and pins 1+2 jumpered. What exactly am I supposed to do?
 
If I read correctly, it's set to Bus Reset Low (12-11). You could try changing it to Bus Reset High (12-10) but I doubt it will help. I don't know which setting your system requires but you can always change it back if it doesn't work.

Does the drive make any noise? Is it detected in the BIOS?
 
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Chances are it's correct as is, see what happens when you try to auto-detect it.

If that fails, there should be a single jumper at the back, if this is present then remove it.
If you need to alter the BUS RESET setting, it sounds like it's currently set to Bus Reset Low - to change it you would move jumper 11+12 to be 12+10 (rotate it 90 degrees) but only do that last if nothing else has worked.

It's a rare drive being an A/X - so be gentle :)

Edit: oh yeah good question Wormetti - does it spin up and is it detected?
 
I have the same drive ST351A/X and jumpered the same as yours, Like spidersweb said it's probably correct as is if you have not changed the settings.
 
Thanks everyone it does spin up and do it's autocheck when I trun the PC on, the bios does not detect it and goes to the next bootable device which is the floppy. I haven't changed anything on the drive so it is as it was when it left the Amstrad factory. Should I try the Bus Reset High setting?
 
Try it as the only drive in the system (or at least on its own IDE channel) and on the end of the cable. Go into the BIOS and look around at IDE drives to see if the model is detected. Use a known working IDE cable. Detection is first step.
 
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Well that is basically where the problem began, it was in the PC it always has been in and stopped working giving the message "HD controller Failure" so I thought of getting myself an ISA controller to replace the onboard one in the 386. The other day I managed to get my hands on an old 286 which had an ISA controller, so I tried the Seagate HD together with many other HD's and this one together with another were the only ones that were giving me the HD controller Failure message. The other HD's were giving me the classic no OS found. So that cuts down the problem to the HD. The cable works, the controller works, the Bios works it just doesn detect this HD. I'll try again this afternoon but I doubt the situation has changed.
 
Try it in a much newer system but it does sound like there is a hardware issue. If you could find an identical drive, you might be able to do a logic board swap or as very last resort, open it up and see if it is spinning correctly.
 
Ok I tried it in a 486DX 33 with no other drives attached and it gives me C: Disk Error whereas the original HD to the 486 is Seagate ST3144A boots to dos as one would expect it to. I could try mounting the Amstrad HD as a slave in the 486 and see what happens?
 
Good news.... I placed the controller board that was in the 286 inside my Amstrad and followed manual Bios config for the HD (shown on the link above) and the Hard disk runs perfectly with all the original Amstrad software. One thing I did do though was to take 1 of the jumpers out, which I have no idea what it was doing there on pins 7+8. Anyways now it works all I have to do is find the original mouse and it's complete.

thanks to all
 
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