• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Help with Sergey's 8-Bit FDC and Serial Port board.

F

fjk61011

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2009
Messages
1,724
Location
Dublin, Ireland
I never understood Addresses and IRQs. I need help with settings for a 5150 with 3rd version of BIOS.

I've removed all the cards but can't get the card to work.

Help appreciated.
 
Hi Chuck,

Should I be seeing a BIOS script like the XT-IDE card?

EDIT: With the switch settings that were on the card, the 5150 would POST then halt.
 
Last edited:
It's been a long time since i used sergey's floppy bios but IIRC During boot up you should see something like ' Press F2 for the configuration utility' on screen, You press F2 and then setup your Floppy drive/'s according to what you have in your 5150, Save and it gets written to the AT2864B EEprom on the controller. Did you build the controller from parts yourself or buy it ready built.
 
Malc said:
It's been a long time since i used sergey's floppy bios but IIRC During boot up you should see something like ' Press F2 for the configuration utility' on screen, You press F2 and then setup your Floppy drive/'s according to what you have in your 5150, Save and it gets written to the AT2864B EEprom on the controller. Did you build the controller from parts yourself or buy it ready built.
Click to expand...
Bought it ready made. According to seller it has bios 2.2

EDIT: I set the card to the first row from the table. Switching on, the BIOS screen comes up, no F2 message. "BIOS extension at INT 13" the cursor flashes and thats all.
 
Last edited:
All i can suggest is you try different address, What video card do you have, If it's EGA / VGA the first in the table will conflict, See the notes at the bottom of the table.

What floppy drive's is the BIOS currently set up for, The default is A: 1.44Mb and B: 1.2Mb i believe, What Floppy drives have you got in your 5150
 
I've a CGA card. The seller says it's set for 1.44 Mb and 360 Kb which is what I want. Also to remove the FDD controller.

Would the BIOS be corrupt?
 
fjk61011 said:
Switching on, the BIOS screen comes up, no F2 message. "BIOS extension at INT 13" the cursor flashes and thats all.
Click to expand...
That "BIOS extension at INT 13" text is not something that the 5150 motherboard's BIOS contains. But looking in the source listing of the Sergey's 2.2 BIOS, I see "BIOS extension is installed on INT 13". I'm sure that is what you meant. The listing indicates that the message is expected to be seen if "no hard drive BIOS was installed".

Also looking in the source listing, there is a mechanism for controlling whether or not the "Press F2 ..." message appears.
; run configuration utility and update equipment if needed
cs test byte [config_flags],config_on_init
jz .1
call config_prompt

So maybe the seller altered the configuration so that the "Press F2 ..." message does not appear. It has been many years since I 'played with' that BIOS. Maybe if F2 is pressed at the right time, the configuration utility will appear.
 
I would have thought the seller would have tested the controller before sending it to you, Many years ago i bought a bare PCB and chip from sergey but never ordered the rest of the parts to build it because i found a controller in my stash that did what i needed it for, I must get around to it one day. I know i have used the BIOS in my 5150 before but it was a long time ago.
 
Malc said:
I would have thought the seller would have tested the controller before sending it to you, Many years ago i bought a bare PCB and chip from sergey but never ordered the rest of the parts to build it because i found a controller in my stash that did what i needed it for, I must get around to it one day. I know i have used the BIOS in my 5150 before but it was a long time ago.
Click to expand...
Yes seller tested device. I've been in touch. I think I may have damaged the BIOS. I've no way of reflashing it because I don't have access to the 5150 via 1.44 Mb drive
 
modem7 said:
Did you see my post #12, and try the suggestion of pressing F2 (even if you are not prompted to do so) ?
Click to expand...
Not yet. I had gone to bed. Will try later.

EDIT: I've tried that now. No Luck. I do get a message, ???? ROM.
 
Last edited:
fjk61011 said:
I do get a message, ???? ROM.
Click to expand...
Can you post a screen shot ?. Have a look at the ROM on the controller and tell us what it is, Is it an ATMEL 2864B EEprom or some other UV erasable Eprom.

Have you tried this controller in another computer ?
 
I recently purchased one of these types of pre-assembled Sergey FDC cards off of EBay from a seller in Bulgaria.

The first card I got would work as a basic FDC with the normal 5150 Rev 3 BIOS, but the Sergey BIOS wouldn’t come up and so I couldn’t use it with my Gotek emulating a 1.44mb floppy. Eventually after about 10 boots or so the 5150 just refused to turn on and POST at all with the board plugged in, so clearly there was something wrong with it.

I then tried sticking the FDC into a P3 unit with a much more powerful supply and the magic smoke came out. It turned out to have a defective C11 capacitor and that test burned the traces between it and the ISA bus. I don’t have the capacity to really test anything beyond that easily.

I wrote the seller back with a picture of the problem and they sent me a new board with no issues.

No problems with the replacement board in the 5150 and the BIOS did appear with no other cards with ROM sockets plugged in. The BIOS addresses of the other boards in my overall system (Lotech 1MB board being used for UMB in the 5150. XT-IDE, Intel Ethernet card, and CH375 ISA-USB in the 5161) make the setup a bit of a challenge that I’ll tackle again at some point in the Fall.

So if you’re feeling adventurous, no harm in sticking a multi-meter on the bits and seeing if you can figure out what is going on. Write back the seller too and see if they have any advice. Caps are relatively easy to remove and test too if you’re careful, but you’ll run the risk of ripping traces and any future negotiations with the Seller might be difficult.
 
Malc said:
Can you post a screen shot ?. Have a look at the ROM on the controller and tell us what it is, Is it an ATMEL 2864B EEprom or some other UV erasable Eprom.

Have you tried this controller in another computer ?
Click to expand...
I just tried in a DTK XT clone. It works. F2 came up and I changed drive 0 to 360 k. Was able to boot from a dos floppy.
 
BarryM said:
I recently purchased one of these types of pre-assembled Sergey FDC cards off of EBay from a seller in Bulgaria.

The first card I got would work as a basic FDC with the normal 5150 Rev 3 BIOS, but the Sergey BIOS wouldn’t come up and so I couldn’t use it with my Gotek emulating a 1.44mb floppy. Eventually after about 10 boots or so the 5150 just refused to turn on and POST at all with the board plugged in, so clearly there was something wrong with it.

I then tried sticking the FDC into a P3 unit with a much more powerful supply and the magic smoke came out. It turned out to have a defective C11 capacitor and that test burned the traces between it and the ISA bus. I don’t have the capacity to really test anything beyond that easily.

I wrote the seller back with a picture of the problem and they sent me a new board with no issues.

No problems with the replacement board in the 5150 and the BIOS did appear with no other cards with ROM sockets plugged in. The BIOS addresses of the other boards in my overall system (Lotech 1MB board being used for UMB in the 5150. XT-IDE, Intel Ethernet card, and CH375 ISA-USB in the 5161) make the setup a bit of a challenge that I’ll tackle again at some point in the Fall.

So if you’re feeling adventurous, no harm in sticking a multi-meter on the bits and seeing if you can figure out what is going on. Write back the seller too and see if they have any advice. Caps are relatively easy to remove and test too if you’re careful, but you’ll run the risk of ripping traces and any future negotiations with the Seller might be difficult.
Click to expand...
I just tried in a DTK XT clone. It works. F2 came up and I changed drive 0 to 360 k. Was able to boot from a dos floppy. Got mine from Bulgaria too. Seller very helpful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top