486 upgrade 2 post

content/post/2018/12/over-analoog-en-digitaal.md

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ bigimg: snes_header.jpg
 subtitle: 'Waarom een fysieke handeling niet vervangbaar is'
 categories:
     - braindump
+    - hardware
 published: true
 ---
 

content/post/2020/09/486-upgrade-sd-hdd.md

@@ -1,23 +1,59 @@
 ---
-title: "A 486 Upgrade: The SD Card HDD"
+title: "486 Upgrade 2: The SD Card HDD"
 date: '2020-09-23'
 concept: true
-subtitle: "Getting tired of loud hard drives? Here's a flash solution!"
+subtitle: "Getting tired of loud hard drives? Here's a flash solution."
 tags:
+  - 486
   - retro
-  - hardware
 categories:
-  - braindump
+  - hardware
 ---
 
+The [revived 486 PC](/post/2020/09/reviving-a-80486/) came with a Conner CFS210A `213` MB hard drive. As mentioned then, I like _silent_ computers, so the first thing I did was flick out the low-end 12V PSU fan. That improved next to nothing thanks to the old HDD that seemed to take of as soon as the power switch was flipped. Next to the noise problem, a more pressing issue appeared: after a week of fiddling with the PC, things started crashing. It got worse: `COMMAND.COM` and master boot record stuff broke, requiring a boot floppy in order to access files on the hard drive. 
+
+`CHKDISK.EXE` ran for hours, fixing broken files and sectors here and there. I was hopeful. Rebooting successfully started DOS but spewed a whole lot of errors: most games and windows refused to work. It turns out that the "repaired" files were gone missing. The perfect time to throw out the noisemaker and take a closer look at flash alternatives. The popular Compact Flash to IDE adapters come with a metal bracket, making it easy to install. But who uses CF nowadays? SD to IDE adapters with chips that convert the signal are cheap on eBay, and my old MacBook Air has a native SD slot, making the decision easy for me.
+
+![](../sdhdd.jpg "IDE adapter (left), 12V adapters (down), 8GB SD card (right).")
+
+The aluminum case is custom-made by my father-in-law and allows me to install the "drive" as any other external device: through the front of the PC case. 
+
+Unfortunately, this 486 upgrade was not a simple plug-and-play case... 
+
+### Problem 1: Recognizing and formatting
+
+How many cylinders, heads and sectors per track does an SD-to-IDE adapter have? The AWARD BIOS of course failed to auto-detect the adapter and I had no idea what to enter. Google ushered me to [WHATIDE.COM](https://archive.org/details/whatide), a small utility that reports the hard drive geometry. 
+
+`FDISK` allowed me to create `500MB` partitions, while in theory, DOS 6.22 can handle up to `2GB` in `FAT16`. Apparently, older motherboards - like mine - do not support this. According to VOGONS, [Dynamic Drive Overlay](https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=42113) software such as _Ontrack Disk Manager_ (downloadable at [Phils Computer Lab](https://www.philscomputerlab.com/ontrack-disk-manager.html)) fixes this by tricking the BIOS into thinking it's a small HDD, while in fact it can contain several partitions of `2GB` (four times: my SD card is `8GB`). Other retro PC bloggers experimented with fast SD cards and concluded that you're limited to the bus speed anyway, so don't fret on which SD card to use. 
+
+![](../ontrack.jpg "A fancy Disk Manager splash screen greets you on startup.")
+
+The Disk Manager creates a special MBR "overlay" that fools the BIOS. This means that booting from floppy's through the conventional BIOS system will not work as the HDD cannot be mounted without knowledge of this system. If floppy booting is desired, Ontrack gives the user two seconds to jam spacebar on time. So, booting through A: means booting through C: and pressing space. Still following? Good. More problems ahead. 
+
+### Problem 2: Reinstalling DOS
+
+Advices such as "[Configuring MS-DOS Properly](https://www.cubic.org/docs/configuring.htm)" that dictate what to put in `CONFIG.SYS` and `AUTOEXEC.BAT` have to wait: my DOS floppy's refused to be recognized as proper installation disks. _Please insert disk 1_. It's in there, take a better look! (Presses Enter). _Please insert disk 1_. Argh!!
+
+It turns out that the label needs to be _exactly_ "DISK (SPACEx6) 1" (six hard spaces). Renaming did not work, low level disk image writers on *NIX systems such as `dd` did not work. Only [WinImage for Windows](https://www.winimage.com/winimage.htm) successfully revitalized the floppy's and allowed me to finally install an OS. 
+
+### Problem 3: Mounting the SD on modern systems
+
+Sadly, OSX did not recognize the SD card. Only after a few hours of cursing I started realizing the dynamic drive overlay could be the culprit. VOGONs to the rescue (again): user ozzmosis was able to mount his card using the `offset` parameter, thereby skipping the special MBR and jumping directly to the `FAT16` partition itself. 
+
+I coupled `mount` with [unison](https://github.com/bcpierce00/unison), a two-way command line synchronization tool that backs up the whole HDD contents to a Dropbox directory. That way, my OSX and Windows machines **can** in fact access the 486 files. My first thought, `rsync`, is problematic with two-way syncing and file-deletion. I use the following script:
+
 ```
 sudo mount -t vfat -o offset=64512,noexec,rw,umask=0000 /dev/sdb /mnt
 sudo unison -auto -perms 0 /mnt/ /home/wouter/Dropbox/486/
-sudo umount /mnt
+sudo umount  /mnt
 ```
 
-[unison](https://github.com/bcpierce00/unison)
+I ended up deleting the three other partitions on the SD card, as `2GB` is more than any DOS user would ever want, and I had trouble looking up the exact offsets of the other partitions. 
 
-[Configuring MS-DOS Properly](https://www.cubic.org/docs/configuring.htm)
+This is what the (open) PC case looks like now:
 
-Floppy disk image writer: [WinImage for Windows](https://www.winimage.com/winimage.htm) or simply `dd` on *NIX systems (that did not work properly for some reason: the MS-DOS installation did not recognize disk 1, even with the six hard spaces in the name)
+![](../pccase.jpg "The PC Case, after installing the SD-to-IDE front slot.")
+
+I was a bit too quick taking that photograph as things were getting cramped: the IDE cable of the adapter seemed to push against the spinning header of the floppy drive, preventing floppy's to be read. The issue was resolved after flipping both drives. 
+
+Now all that is left is adding a nice retro `1"` [doming sticker](https://www.domingfactory.nl/vierkante-doming-sticker) on the case! And I will keep an eye out on garage sales for that eighties `5.25"` floppy drive...

content/post/2020/09/486-upgrade-sound-blaster.md

@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 ---
-title: "A 486 Upgrade: Sound Blaster 16"
+title: "486 Upgrade 1: Sound Blaster 16"
 date: '2020-09-18'
 subtitle: "A Classic ISA sound card, including MIDI daughter board!"
 tags:
+  - 486
   - retro
-  - hardware
 categories:
-  - braindump
+  - hardware
 bigimg: sndblaster.jpg
 ---
 
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ It might indeed be quite a _nerdy_ pleasure, but the difference is profound. Lis
 
 `€53` excluding shipping and a few days later, it arrived from a German eBay seller cleverly named "Electronics Recycling". I wish there were more actual stores like that. Installing the DOS drivers is quite easy; `SBBASIC.EXE` from [Phil's Computer Lab](philscomputerlab.com/creative-labs-drivers.html) takes care of everything, including modifying `AUTOEXEC.BAT`. The jumpers were configured to address `240`, IRQ `5`, DMA `1` and HDMA `5`. I left them there. 
 
-Perhaps the most compelling part of the above photograph is the strange petite daughter board on the top right that is attached to the Sound Blaster. It uses the wave table MIDI header port. Since actual retro Creative Wave Blaster boards are very scarce (+€300 on eBay), the internet handed me a Belgian alternative: the **Dream Blaster S2** from [Serdaco BVBA](https://www.serdashop.com). New hardware for old hardware because - why not? The S2 is the cheapest option available (`€34`). Since I never used external synthesis before and Phil's review on YouTube was laudatory, I got ahead and clicked buy. Belgian money well-spent. 
+Perhaps the most compelling part of the above photograph is the strange petite daughter board on the top right that is attached to the Sound Blaster. It uses the wave table MIDI header port. Since actual retro Creative Wave Blaster boards are very scarce (+€300 on eBay), the internet handed me a Belgian alternative: the **Dream Blaster S2** from [Serdaco BVBA](https://www.serdashop.com). New hardware for old hardware because - why not? The S2 is the cheapest option available (`€34`). Since I never used external synthesis before and Philq's review on YouTube was laudatory, I got ahead and clicked buy. Belgian money well-spent. 
 
 Of course, not every game supports wave tables or even has MIDI music. As a test, I recorded and edited a few samples from Rise of the Triad. Each video contains three parts:
 
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ The result: (_dial up your volume! I recorded with my smartphone on purpose, I d
 
 {{< video "/vid/rottsnd-apogee.mp4" >}}
 
-The difference is huge, and I couldn't wipe that grin off my face - even with just the Sound Blaster, I just _love_ that intro. This brings back so many fond memories. Notice the subtle differences in the background with the S2! And yes, my VGA card and CPU can barely handle the game. An issue for a future blog post. 
+The difference is huge, and I couldn't wipe that grin off my face - even with just the Sound Blaster, I just _love_ that intro. This brings back so many fond memories. Notice the subtle differences in the background with the S2! And yes, my VGA card and CPU can barely handle the game. An issue for a future blog post[^perf]. 
 
 Let's continue to the ROTT main menu and loading screen:
 
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ The music continues on to the gameplay:
 
 {{< video "/vid/rottsnd-gameplay.mp4" >}}
 
-You can see that the PC clearly is not up to the task and even shows several dips in music and sound FX playback while firing missiles. I did temporarily resocket the motherboard with the DX40 CPU. All options are set to maximum, I do not care for graphics performance just yet. 
+You can see that the PC clearly is not up to the task and even shows several dips in music and sound FX playback while firing missiles. I did temporarily resocket the motherboard with the DX40 CPU. All options are set to maximum, I do not care for graphics performance just yet[^perf]. 
 
 Of course, this is just a sample of a single game. Other DOS MIDI masterpieces include:
 
@@ -59,3 +59,23 @@ Of course, this is just a sample of a single game. Other DOS MIDI masterpieces i
 - ...
 
 This Sound Blaster 16 has made me childishly happy.  Now where are all those floppy's?
+
+---
+
+In case anyone wants to jumper the PC Speaker pins on their Sound Blaster, configure them as follows: ([src](https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18283&p=131727&hilit=sound%20blaster%20speaker#p131727)):
+
+Sound Blaster:
+```
+Pin 1 = +5V
+Pin 2 = Speaker
+```
+IBM PC:
+```
+Pin 1 = Speaker
+Pin 2 = None/Key
+Pin 3 = Ground (No need to connect)
+Pin 4 = +5V
+```
+
+
+[^perf]: It turns out that I forgot that the _TURBO_ pins were jumpered on themotherboard, but the button was not pressed. Without _TURBO_, the performance is comparable to a 386. Ouch, what a stupid mistake to make! Thanks [VOGONS community](https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=76632) for the hints. 

content/post/2020/09/reviving-a-80486.md

@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@ title: "Reviving an old 80486 PC"
 date: '2020-09-03'
 subtitle: "24 years later, does it still work?"
 tags:
+  - 486
   - retro
-  - hardware
 categories:
-  - braindump
+  - hardware
 ---
 
 What better birthday present to wish for as rapidly too old growing nostalgic computer nerd than a too old PC? "_Here, take this. At least now we don't have to haul it to the container park!_" And what exactly is _this_?

content/tags/_index.md

@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ Not finding what you're looking for? Try browsing the archives:
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