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From: jcburt@ipsun.larc.nasa.gov (John Burton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy
Subject: Re: Tandy 1000 (old) Hard Drive/BIOS Question
Message-ID: <1991Apr30.122915.29844@news.larc.nasa.gov>
Date: 30 Apr 91 12:29:15 GMT
References: <409@aplcomm.JHUAPL.EDU>
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In article <409@aplcomm.JHUAPL.EDU> scoop@aplcomm.JHUAPL.EDU (Cooper Steve S2F x3560) writes:
>
>Hi,
>
>	I've got an OLD Tandy 1000 (not '1000A'), and have a 
>hard-drive-on-a-card inside it from the Hard Drive Specialist, and a Tandy
>286 Express card in it.  There is (was) a ROM BIOS upgrade for the 1000 
>a while back which I never
>did.  I am experiencing all sorts of wierdness (have been for some time,

[...much about wierdness deleted...]

>there are ROMs on the hard drive card.  These are the ROMs I think I should 
>replace, not the ones on the motherboard.  What I'd like to know is:

[...]

>-- 
>
>			Steve Cooper
>			scoop@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu

Ummm...Steve...The wierdness you are seeing probably *is* due to the wrong motherboard
ROM version...when they said that the ROM wouldn't support > DOS 3.0 they probably
had a good reason for saying so.

True, the hard disk card/controller has a ROM BIOS on it, but that is ONLY concerned
with the hard disk drive, not with everything else the motherboard BIOS handles. Putting
a hard disk into an original Tandy 1000 faces two problems...the 1000's ROM BIOS had NO 
provision for a hard disk in it, and the power supply is too small. You can probably
survive the inadequate power supply for awhile, but without the BIOS support, you're
SOL...to get around this the hard drive card manufacturer put the BIOS for the hard
disk on the controller, with a tie-in to the motherboard BIOS (it executes the the
controller BIOS instead of a portion of the motherboard bios). 

In short, BOTH the ROM BIOS on the controller, and the ROM BIOS on the mother board 
are used. The wierdness you see is more than likely the result of the motherboard 
ROM version / DOS version mismatch...


good luck...


John

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| John Burton                                                        |
| G & A Technical Software                                           |
| jcburt@gatsibm.larc.nasa.gov                                       |
| jcburt@cs.wm.edu                                                   |
|                                                                    |
| Disclaimer: Hey, what can I say...These are *my* views, not those  |
|             of anyone else, be they employer, school, or government|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+