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Orcish75 · 18 March 2023, 23:32

The XTIDE BIOS definitely works, I've got an A2286 bridgeboard in my A2000 with a CF card connected to the IDE port on a soundcard. Rather get the latest version of XTIDE from this site: https://www.xtideuniversalbios.org/ and create a custom version of XTIDE that only uses the one IDE port on your I/O card. You'll need a 27C64 or 27C128 EPROM for the BIOS image, depending on which size BIOS you choose. A 27C256 or bigger can be used, just remember to burn multiple images of the BIOS to fill in the space.

Very important to set the checksum byte when creating your XTIDE image, if you don't do this, the XTIDE will not work. Use the software that came with your ISA NIC (or jumpers if it has) to enable the ROM socket and to set the correct ROM size and address for the ROM. You might have to play around a bit with the address until you find one where there is no conflict and the ROM boots.

Before I discovered XTIDE, I tried an Adaptec AHA1542 SCSI card, but it would hard lock when doing DMA transfers, I had to use a different SCSI card that was PIO based to make it work. The AHA1542 might work with the A2386, but it didn't work with the A2286.

18 March 2023, 23:32	#11
Orcish75 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Johannesburg, South Africa Age: 49 Posts: 53	The XTIDE BIOS definitely works, I've got an A2286 bridgeboard in my A2000 with a CF card connected to the IDE port on a soundcard. Rather get the latest version of XTIDE from this site: https://www.xtideuniversalbios.org/ and create a custom version of XTIDE that only uses the one IDE port on your I/O card. You'll need a 27C64 or 27C128 EPROM for the BIOS image, depending on which size BIOS you choose. A 27C256 or bigger can be used, just remember to burn multiple images of the BIOS to fill in the space. Very important to set the checksum byte when creating your XTIDE image, if you don't do this, the XTIDE will not work. Use the software that came with your ISA NIC (or jumpers if it has) to enable the ROM socket and to set the correct ROM size and address for the ROM. You might have to play around a bit with the address until you find one where there is no conflict and the ROM boots. Before I discovered XTIDE, I tried an Adaptec AHA1542 SCSI card, but it would hard lock when doing DMA transfers, I had to use a different SCSI card that was PIO based to make it work. The AHA1542 might work with the A2386, but it didn't work with the A2286.