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Anyone try a Gsi 1533-21-10-0 Model 21 in an XT or Tandy 1000?

For those that don’t know this is an ide + quad 2.88mb FD controller with its own bios and built in power on setup

I don’t kno if it can run in 8 or 16 bit mode
 
Hi... Just tried a GSI 1533-21-10-9 in an Intel rc440bx board... Cannot get 3rd or fourth floppy to be recognised... A + B works fine... (1,44 + 1,2 MB)... I tried to attach a 360 or 1,44 as 3rd... But this does not work

Do you have the Manual of this controller ?
 
I think I've got one of these in my ISA hellbox o' cards. I got it early on to support a 2.88M drive. Although this has 2 connectors on it, my recollection is that it still only supports 2 drives--the 2.88M drive goes in one connector and the "normal" drives go in the other.

However, if you're desperate, I can dig it out and check. I may even have the little booklet/sheet that it came with.
 
Okay, I have the GSI 1535-01-03-4 card, so I don't know if the floppy portion is the same as yours. It was also sold as the MCT-FDC-ED

The two headers are labeled "REG" (J3) and "2.88) (J2). There's a 28C64A EEPROM on the board in addition to the Intel N82077SL 68 pin PLCC controller.

It's interesting in that setting the J4 jumper to "secondary", it becomes a second floppy controller. It does support 3 drives, if one of them is a 2.88M (from what I can tell). There's a built-in BIOS setup dialog that allows you to specify the type of your 3 drives, including high-speed 600/720 RPM ones and whether you;re using DOS 6.0 or later (has to do with drive letter assignment) So, with a standard 2-drive floppy primary, you could have up to 5 floppy drives in your system.

Interesting. I never paid much attention to this thing because it lacked an external drive connector on the bracket.

The date of the manual is 11/30/93.
 
Hi... Thanks for the hints... Mine is a GSI 1533-21-11-8 Model 21 which is a 16 Bit ISA card. I have included some photos. Meanwhile i have tested it as Secondary and disabled the secondary IDE Controller in the mainboard BIOS. Card is recognized during boot. There is no option to enter into a Bios Dialog as far as i can see... Is there a special key to enter it ? Maybe my board does not have such a dialog (autodetect ?).

I have a standard 3,5 1,44 MB connected on the Mainboard and try to connect two 5,25 drives (1,2 and 360) on one cable... But the drives are not detected nor a drive letter is assigned. The card also has a Power Connecter... For what this could be ? i do not know.... Can you make a scan from the manual of yours ?

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Thanks in advance for any advice
 
According to my manual, "Insert" during boot gets you into the configuration menu. But the 1533 appears to have the same chips and connectors that the 1535 has, and adds an IDE interface. Jumpers are slightly different, but there.
 
Chuck(G) said:
According to my manual, "Insert" during boot gets you into the configuration menu. But the 1533 appears to have the same chips and connectors that the 1535 has, and adds an IDE interface. Jumpers are slightly different, but there.
Click to expand...

The one I was looking at had IDE and a stand alone bios, I was hoping it might be a hybrid 8/16 bit unit
 
ISA floppy controllers are always 8 bit, no matter what they're on the board with. My GSI 1535 is certainly an 8-bit card, but then it's floppy-only.
 
Thanks for further hints... The <insert> key does not work at mine. I think there is option dialog for my controller... Perhaps my Mainboard already is to "new" for this sort of Controller :). It is a PII with 350 MHz and i think the card was designed to add IDE + Floppy support to older (before Pentium) Mainboards...
 
If desired, I can dump the PROM from mine. I note that it's a 28C64, which means that it's reprogrammable, but the manual doesn't talk about a firmware update option.

PII still sounds within the realm of possibility.
 
Hi... New update... Tried the Board in an IBM 5162 - And what do you think ? The BIOS screen appears and i could access to the BIOS via <INSERT> Key. Then i set the Floppy Options exactly to my connected drives and got 3 Floppies attached (Drive A, B, C). Unfortunately the Controller DOES NOT recognize any IDE Device... Tried an 80 MEG IDE from IBM, a Quad CD Rom, an 1,2 GB EIDE drive, a 6 GIG EIDE Drive.... I think the BIOS from the 5162 is blocking something here :) But i do not know...
 
mgutzeit said:
Hi... New update... Tried the Board in an IBM 5162 - And what do you think ? The BIOS screen appears and i could access to the BIOS via <INSERT> Key. Then i set the Floppy Options exactly to my connected drives and got 3 Floppies attached (Drive A, B, C). Unfortunately the Controller DOES NOT recognize any IDE Device... Tried an 80 MEG IDE from IBM, a Quad CD Rom, an 1,2 GB EIDE drive, a 6 GIG EIDE Drive.... I think the BIOS from the 5162 is blocking something here :) But i do not know...
Click to expand...

Ah, that’s a 16 bit system with no bios setup

http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5162/misc/5162_basics.htm

You likely need to run the ibm setup program disc and remove all disc parameters and controllers then install the unit

Sort of an odd device, it adds 8gb drive support to 16 bit ISA system that already have an ide and bios more than likely.

Must be intended for 286 / and early 386 systems to move from mfm
Which at the time it was made was a small slice of the Pc market if it couldn’t also run 8 bit.
 
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Ah ok... Will try that... Meanwhile tested in my PII 350 - With the CORRECT (and same) Drives and settings - I can now enter BIOS Screen of the floppy controller also on this machine... It recognizes as well the 3 floppies.... But no IDE device even... Must be as you have written... May support ISA Boards from 286 - 386 to get away from MFM drives...
 
Chuck(G) said:
I suspect it may be a jumper problem, since there's basically nothing in an IDE adapter, other than a bus interface.
Click to expand...

Past experience says that you need something ide attached or removed from the onboard controller or a complete remove and disable of the onboard hd controller before things play nice.

My guess is the board being an “external “ controller changes the rules to getting it polled and loaded during boot
 
That was a problem with various Tandy machines--and even extended to the floppy controller not being capable of being disabled with a simple jumper setting. I take your point. :)
 
Hi... Some news on this... i've uses now a DTK 286 Board with it's own Bios. Now the controller recoginizes all 4 floppy drives... That's great... But still "No hard drive found"... Found a suitable (newer ) ROM version also here in VCFEd... Does someone have the utilities to flash the eeprom ? Thanks in advance
 
SOLVED ! ... After (many) Try and error i have recognized that in the Mainboard BIOS an IDE device must be assigned. It DOES NOT MATTER if you choose the correct parameters. Just select any type (i've selected type 1 = 10 MB Disk). Then the GSI adapter recognize the Disk and assigns the parameters correctly and fully automatically.... Always a problem if you do not have a manual :)

Greetings
 
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