@Itning I tested your Firmware/BIOS and it works great on my controller. Thanks again!
I'll attach my version just for the reference, should someone need it.

Zerthimon wrote on 2021-08-31, 09:23:

@Itning I tested your Firmware/BIOS and it works great on my controller. Thanks again!
I'll attach my version just for the reference, should someone need it.

How big a drive did you test with? BIOS screenshots? :)

Aight, did some additional testing, here are observations:

Here is how new version displays during POST:

I tried with three HDDs: 800MB, 6GB and 40GB.

6GB:

40GB:

So, the controller is able to address capacities up to limit of 8.4GB (first LBA limit of 1024 cyl, 63 sec, 255 head) which is pretty impressive for an ISA card in a 386 rig.
With my old BIOS the card could only address up to 504MB (CHS limit).

Sweet ! now to score one of those controllers ...

Hola again,
I've uploaded the BIOS to vogonsdrivers now that I got access there:

https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1865

Enjoy, folks!
/Eirik

Hi Eirik!

I'm new here and can't send PMs that's why I'm replying on this old topic 😀

I just bought a DC-4030VL-1 in physically good shape, but without ROM chips.
Have you managed to find any working BIOS/ROM for the -1 version?

Thank you for your time reading this in advance!

Best,
MRW

[/quote]

Now I wish someone would do the same for the DC4030VL-1... I have the BIOS for VL-2 (can't upload it since I bought it from a guy who sells upgrades, so that would be a bit of a d***e move on my part), but that does not work on the -1.

/Eirik
[/quote]

mrwolf wrote on 2024-04-08, 15:14:

I just bought a DC-4030VL-1 in physically good shape, but without ROM chips.
Have you managed to find any working BIOS/ROM for the -1 version?

Hey, welcome :)
I can get you ROM dumps, but not with LBA support, sadly. So it won't be useful unless <500-ish MB is enough ..

"Someone" should try to add support for this to XTIDE or something .. I'll happily donate a card. I have several :)

/Eirik

ltning wrote on 2024-04-08, 16:43:

Hey, welcome :) I can get you ROM dumps, but not with LBA support, sadly. So it won't be useful unless <500-ish MB is enough .. […]
Show full quote

mrwolf wrote on 2024-04-08, 15:14:

I just bought a DC-4030VL-1 in physically good shape, but without ROM chips.
Have you managed to find any working BIOS/ROM for the -1 version?

Hey, welcome 😀
I can get you ROM dumps, but not with LBA support, sadly. So it won't be useful unless <500-ish MB is enough ..

"Someone" should try to add support for this to XTIDE or something .. I'll happily donate a card. I have several 😀

/Eirik

Many thanks for the quick reply.

Any ROM is better than no ROMs at all 😀
I would be able to test that the card is even working or not.
I bought the card as is, nobody knows why the RAM sticks and the ROMs were removed from it.

I would appreciate it if you could upload them to vogons drivers.

To be honest the dual floppy controller makes me more curious than the IDE controller 😀

Best,
MRW

Here you go. It should be uploaded to vogonsdrivers but I need to dig out my FTP credentials again..
This ZIP contains three dumps, all of them look like version 2.20:
- From a Longshine LCS-6941 with 64k chips, M27C512
- From a Promise DC4030VL-1 with 64k chips, M27C512
- From a Promise DC4030VL-1 with 32k chips, M27C256B

About the Promise dumps:
When I try to chop off the leading 32k in the 64k dumps (the actual data is in the second half), I get files precisely matching the 32k dumps for -O (odd) and -X (BIOS) *only*. For the -E (even) file, there is, from what I can tell, one byte (or half-byte) difference. As such I cannot guarantee that both will work.

None of the -X files mention any translation mode, and apart from the Promise vs Longshine, they all seem to be the same version.

ltning wrote on 2024-04-15, 23:41:

Here you go. It should be uploaded to vogonsdrivers but I need to dig out my FTP credentials again.. This ZIP contains three dum […]
Show full quote

Here you go. It should be uploaded to vogonsdrivers but I need to dig out my FTP credentials again..
This ZIP contains three dumps, all of them look like version 2.20:
- From a Longshine LCS-6941 with 64k chips, M27C512
- From a Promise DC4030VL-1 with 64k chips, M27C512
- From a Promise DC4030VL-1 with 32k chips, M27C256B

About the Promise dumps:
When I try to chop off the leading 32k in the 64k dumps (the actual data is in the second half), I get files precisely matching the 32k dumps for -O (odd) and -X (BIOS) *only*. For the -E (even) file, there is, from what I can tell, one byte (or half-byte) difference. As such I cannot guarantee that both will work.

None of the -X files mention any translation mode, and apart from the Promise vs Longshine, they all seem to be the same version.

Many many thanks! I have some W27C512 EEPROMs so I can test them if my card is in working condition.
I will get back to you with the result soon.

ltning wrote on 2024-04-15, 23:41:

Here you go. It should be uploaded to vogonsdrivers but I need to dig out my FTP credentials again.. This ZIP contains three dum […]
Show full quote

Here you go. It should be uploaded to vogonsdrivers but I need to dig out my FTP credentials again..
This ZIP contains three dumps, all of them look like version 2.20:
- From a Longshine LCS-6941 with 64k chips, M27C512
- From a Promise DC4030VL-1 with 64k chips, M27C512
- From a Promise DC4030VL-1 with 32k chips, M27C256B

About the Promise dumps:
When I try to chop off the leading 32k in the 64k dumps (the actual data is in the second half), I get files precisely matching the 32k dumps for -O (odd) and -X (BIOS) *only*. For the -E (even) file, there is, from what I can tell, one byte (or half-byte) difference. As such I cannot guarantee that both will work.

None of the -X files mention any translation mode, and apart from the Promise vs Longshine, they all seem to be the same version.

Hey,

Many thanks again for the dumps!
Sadly it looks like my controller is not fully functional.

I tried all the ROMs.
The card is detected and tests the RAM successfully.
I'm able to get into the settings, and boot with it from floppy.
But it's not detecting any IDE drives, it says from 0-3 that drive does not exists.

I had a quick look for lifted legs or something trivial but everything looks just fine.
Maybe I'm missing something but I think this is why the ROM chips were initially missing 😀

Thanks!
MRW

mrwolf wrote on 2024-04-19, 04:54:

Hey, […]
Show full quote

ltning wrote on 2024-04-15, 23:41:

Here you go. It should be uploaded to vogonsdrivers but I need to dig out my FTP credentials again.. This ZIP contains three dum […]
Show full quote

Here you go. It should be uploaded to vogonsdrivers but I need to dig out my FTP credentials again..
This ZIP contains three dumps, all of them look like version 2.20:
- From a Longshine LCS-6941 with 64k chips, M27C512
- From a Promise DC4030VL-1 with 64k chips, M27C512
- From a Promise DC4030VL-1 with 32k chips, M27C256B

About the Promise dumps:
When I try to chop off the leading 32k in the 64k dumps (the actual data is in the second half), I get files precisely matching the 32k dumps for -O (odd) and -X (BIOS) *only*. For the -E (even) file, there is, from what I can tell, one byte (or half-byte) difference. As such I cannot guarantee that both will work.

None of the -X files mention any translation mode, and apart from the Promise vs Longshine, they all seem to be the same version.

Hey,

Many thanks again for the dumps!
Sadly it looks like my controller is not fully functional.

I tried all the ROMs.
The card is detected and tests the RAM successfully.
I'm able to get into the settings, and boot with it from floppy.
But it's not detecting any IDE drives, it says from 0-3 that drive does not exists.

I had a quick look for lifted legs or something trivial but everything looks just fine.
Maybe I'm missing something but I think this is why the ROM chips were initially missing 😀

Thanks!
MRW

Little update: I tried with different IRQ(12) and now the card can see my CF cards. Now fdisk is unable to detect fixed disks 🤣

mrwolf wrote on 2024-04-19, 16:57:

Little update: I tried with different IRQ(12) and now the card can see my CF cards. Now fdisk is unable to detect fixed disks XD

That would suggest that you have another IDE controller on IRQ 14.. Any sound cards or whatnot that has been configured to use IRQ14? I know at least a couple of my "no-name" SB clones have undocumented jumper positions that would have it occupy IRQ 14..

ltning wrote on 2024-05-08, 09:15:

mrwolf wrote on 2024-04-19, 16:57:

Little update: I tried with different IRQ(12) and now the card can see my CF cards. Now fdisk is unable to detect fixed disks 🤣

That would suggest that you have another IDE controller on IRQ 14.. Any sound cards or whatnot that has been configured to use IRQ14? I know at least a couple of my "no-name" SB clones have undocumented jumper positions that would have it occupy IRQ 14..

Hey,

It took a while, but yesterday I managed to get it working with a different motherboard.
So I can confirm that your BIOS dumps are working fine.

Many many thanks again, with your help this card has been resurrected successfully 😀

,
MrWolf

Experiences:
- When it looks like the card bios hangs, in my case I had to attach at least one drive on it, maybe some long timeout...
- When it says something like - failed to get configuration - after RAM check, the same I had to attach a drive, and the error disappeared