PC-XT Turbo

[KenG]

Actually, when I first brought the Commodore Colt home, it had CGA and just speaker sound. Coming from a Commodore 128, that just wouldn't do. I bought VGA and sound cards pretty quickly.

I figured out the clock. After trying 20+ clock utilities, I pulled the card out. The jumper for the clock wasn't set. I set it for clock 1 and now it works great. The com ports aren't set right either. I will work on that next. I have an XTIDE ordered, the 30MB RLL drive just won't be enough. I think the XTIDE will be much faster too.

I am getting it to where I want it slowly. I have found a couple of games that are better on the Jr with Tandy graphics and sound, so it will get used also. My girlfriend has decided she needs more room for here sewing and crafts. That means she will be moving her stuff out of what used to be my computer room and giving it back to me. Once I get set up, I will post pictures.

[KenG]

Thanks to the guys a vcfed.org, I have the com ports sorted out and the mouse working. Getting into vintage computers would be very difficult without these boards.

[KenG]

Ok, I have a new problem. I installed an XTIDE yesterday. I have a game that I have been playing on the Jr using Tandy graphics. It supports EGA and VGA so I wanted to play it on the XT-turbo with VGA. I had tried to play it from the ST-238R and the computer would lock up, even if I tried to run it from floppies. With the XTIDE in and the controller for the RLL drive out, I can run the game from floppies but not from the DOM on the XTIDE. I am wondering if it could be a port conflict. If I remember correctly, the Jr-IDE doesn't use a port whereas the XTIDE (Rev3) does. Anybody have an idea?

[Trixter]

It is very odd that the type of hard drive would make game software cause an error like this. What game are you trying to run?

[KenG]

The original King's Bounty by New World Computing. Yes, very odd. I don't think I have ever seen this before. The program has no setup. It auto detects everything. You can force video mode by adding C T E or V after KB when you start it. On my Jr, I type KB T to get Tandy graphics instead of CGA. I Kate tried all of them from the DOM and none work. From floppy, it sees and uses VGA.

[Trixter]

I'm stumped. The only practical way to figure it out is to run the game under a debugger and try to narrow down the code where it locks up. It is possible that it dies trying to detect sound devices, not video. Some MIDI cards are at ports that the XTIDE might be using, and a bad poke to the XTIDE might cause it to lock up.

[KenG]

I posted in the vcfed forum. In response to a suggestion there, I tried loading the game from floppies. Then I exited the game and tried using the DOM on the XTIDE. It was still working. I don't know if that helps narrow it down.

While testing, I noticed the XTIDE is reporting it's BIOS at D600h. I didn't think it could be set at that. I thought it went by 4s. C000h, C400h, C800h, CC00h, CE00h, D000h, D400h, D800h, etc.

This is the board that is silver being sold on eBay. Rev3, but doesn't seem to have some of the normal jumpers or switches. I didn't look closely before I installed it, but there were places for things that weren't populated.

[Trixter]

There are so many variables it's hard to tell you where to start. I would start by putting the XTIDE BIOS at the proper location of D000 (C000 or C800 will conflict with your VGA card).

I'm surprised the glitchworks v3 respin got so much press -- lo-tech's board is faster, simpler, more flexible, and cheaper.

[KenG]

Thanks for your advice. I probably won't have time to work on this for a while. I will be moving my girlfriend's sewing and crafts stuff out of what was my computer room and putting my computer room back together. It will be easier to work on things then. I bought what I did because it was the only option I found fully assembled.

[Trixter]

I understand about fully assembled. It took me years to get over my fear of learning basic electronics. In fact, only last year, I finally bought an ok-quality soldering station and some practice kits, and only now can I assemble through-hole kits.