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Tandy 1000 TL and Lotech EMS card

Z

Zombie

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2011
Messages
125
I am trying to add a LoTech EMS card to my Tandy 1000, I have tried several jumper configurations with varying results. Some disable my VGA card, one configuration disabled the Hard Disk, among other problems.

The Tandy has:
A Full 768 K RAM.
80286 CPU and 80287 Math Co-Processor.
Cirrus Logic 256 K VGA card
LoTech XT IDE Controller with a 1 GB Attached IDE CF Card.
Western Digital WD8003E NIC card
LoTech EMS card (2 MB Variety)

The LTEMM.EXE Driver says that no Memory was detected.
Wolfenstien 3D, which has support for expanded Memory hangs.
If anyone knows any good trouble shooting or diagnostic methods, please speak up.
 
Zombie said:
I am trying to add a LoTech EMS card to my Tandy 1000, I have tried several jumper configurations with varying results. Some disable my VGA card, one configuration disabled the Hard Disk, among other problems.

The Tandy has:
A Full 768 K RAM.
80286 CPU and 80287 Math Co-Processor.
Cirrus Logic 256 K VGA card
LoTech XT IDE Controller with a 1 GB Attached IDE CF Card.
Western Digital WD8003E NIC card
LoTech EMS card (2 MB Variety)

The LTEMM.EXE Driver says that no Memory was detected.
Wolfenstien 3D, which has support for expanded Memory hangs.
If anyone knows any good trouble shooting or diagnostic methods, please speak up.
Click to expand...

Mine works fine at address D000. Make sure boot tomorrow is disabled on that nic.
 
Unfortunately, you probably will have to sacrifice one of the add-on cards. The problem is the use of the upper memory area.

VGA - Requires 32KB from C0000-C7FFF for Video BIOS ROM (also A0000-AFFFF and B8000-BFFFF or B0000-B7FFF for Video RAM)
IDE - Requires 32KB from C8000-CFFFF or D8000-DFFFF for XT-IDE ROM
NIC - Requires 8KB from CA000-CBFFF or D0000-D1FFF or D8000-D9FFF for Buffer RAM
EMS - Requires 64KB from C0000-CFFFF or D0000-DFFFF or E0000-EFFFF for EMS RAM
Tandy - Requires 64KB from E0000-FFFFF for DOS-in-ROM and BIOS ROM

You can't have any overlap here. The C0000-CFFFF area is taken over completely by VGA and IDE. EMS can't be there. The NIC can't be either unless you switch the IDE to use D8000-DFFFF, but at that point you don't have a 64KB free block of Upper Memory. The only thing that might work is setting the EMS to use the E0000-EFFFF area, which may work because the XT-IDE BIOS should disable the DOS-in-ROM. I doubt it, however.

Note also that the XT-IDE card uses I/O 300-31F and the NIC card has the option to use I/O 300. Use the other option if possible.
 
Last edited:
Great Hierophant said:
Unfortunately, you probably will have to sacrifice one of the add-on cards. The problem is the use of the upper memory area.

VGA - Requires 32KB from C0000-C7FFF for Video BIOS ROM (also A0000-AFFFF and B8000-BFFFF or B0000-B7FFF for Video RAM)
IDE - Requires 32KB from C8000-CFFFF or D8000-DFFFF for XT-IDE ROM
NIC - Requires 8KB from CA000-CBFFF or D0000-D1FFF or D8000-D9FFF for Buffer RAM
EMS - Requires 64KB from C0000-CFFFF or D0000-DFFFF or E0000-EFFFF for EMS RAM
Tandy - Requires 64KB from E0000-FFFFF for DOS-in-ROM and BIOS ROM

You can't have any overlap here. The C0000-CFFFF area is taken over completely by VGA and IDE. EMS can't be there. The NIC can't be either unless you switch the IDE to use D8000-DFFFF, but at that point you don't have a 64KB free block of Upper Memory. The only thing that might work is setting the EMS to use the E0000-EFFFF area, which may work because the XT-IDE BIOS should disable the DOS-in-ROM. I doubt it, however.

Note also that the XT-IDE card uses I/O 300-31F and the NIC card has the option to use I/O 300. Use the other option if possible.
Click to expand...

I have essentially the same setup as op. Either disable the boot ROM on your nic or find one that lets you disable it. I configured my nic for io 320 and irq 5.
 
I don't mind shuffling the Addressing, or disabling the boot Rom on the NIC, as long as the NIC still functions.
 
I need these other functions more than I need the EMS card...

I need these other functions more than I need the EMS card...

I need these other functions more than I need the EMS card... but it is important to me to get everything working.

- I need the NIC because I have no other way save from physically removing and reinserting the CF Card to transfer data to it over my LAN.
- I need the VGA card because several games and other programs are configured to use it.
- I need the hard Drive Controller for obvious reasons.
- I do use my Serial Port (mice)

- Tandy Rom DOS is... eh... I never use it.

Can I use MSD to get a good table of how Memory is laid out right now?
 
Zombie said:
I need these other functions more than I need the EMS card... but it is important to me to get everything working.

- I need the NIC because I have no other way save from physically removing and reinserting the CF Card to transfer data to it over my LAN.
- I need the VGA card because several games and other programs are configured to use it.
- I need the hard Drive Controller for obvious reasons.
- I do use my Serial Port (mice)

- Tandy Rom DOS is... eh... I never use it.

Can I use MSD to get a good table of how Memory is laid out right now?
Click to expand...

Boot ROM shouldn't have any impact on your use of the nic. It's only for odd cases where you are booting from a network image without any local storage.
 
keenerb said:
Boot ROM shouldn't have any impact on your use of the nic. It's only for odd cases where you are booting from a network image without any local storage.
Click to expand...

Interesting, does the WD 8003e even have a boot rom? Is it configurable?

Doesn't look like it according to Google.
 
I haven't had the chance to work on it, but I am still fielding possible solutions to resolve conflicts between the three cards.
 
Okay. I've got it all connected up.

MSD breaks its Memory Browser into:
ROM BIOS - F000 and uses 64 KB and ends at FCFF
Option ROM - D000 and uses 8192 Bytes
Video ROM - C000 it uses 24576 bytes

D400 - is listed as RAM
E000 - through ECFF is listed as 'Possibly Availible'
 
The card still won't work. I've removed all cards. (Network and VGA) and it still won't work.
 
What is your configuation?

What is your configuation?

What is your configuation?
 
My Hard Disk controller uses D000 and my NIC uses D400. Do you have one ofthe LoTech XT-IDE Controllers as well? Also what syntax do you use with Config.sys?
 
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