Old 286

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jvas
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Hi,
Sorry, if I'm in a wrong forum, I'm new here.
I have an Atari PC4. It is a 80286 computer equipped with an AMI NEAT BIOS. (the BIOS ID starts with "DNET").
My problem is that some of the BIOS parameters (e.g. installed memory type) cannot be set via the BIOS's setup, but only with an external utility called "NEAT.EXE". This is what I'm missing. Do you know somebody, who can help me to find out which of the CMOS's memory location need to be altered in order to set these BIOS parameters? I can DUMP the original BIOS, but my technical knowledge ends here...
Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
Jozsi
edwin
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Try gsetup.zip (generic setup) as it seems to work on most AT 286 machines

http://motherboards.mbarron.net/download/
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jvas
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edwin wrote:Try gsetup.zip (generic setup) as it seems to work on most AT 286 machines

http://motherboards.mbarron.net/download/
Hi,

I tried that, but I cannot set the "extended" BIOS parameters with that.
In the meantime I could find some information about this BIOS. Please find it attached. I think I can write a small exe with which I can set these parameters.
Attachments
NEAT286.rar
(38.55 KiB) Downloaded 888 times
edwin
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info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEAT_chipset

datasheet:
http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datashe ... 9219_1.pdf

bits of source code:
http://git.redump.net/mess/plain/src/me ... e/cs8221.c

and maybe, just maybe, this puppy has the original setup disks:
http://www.pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id=44
ask them...

And if you succeed in making the settings program, by all means publish it :)
edwin/evasive

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jvas
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edwin wrote:info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEAT_chipset

datasheet:
http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datashe ... 9219_1.pdf

bits of source code:
http://git.redump.net/mess/plain/src/me ... e/cs8221.c

and maybe, just maybe, this puppy has the original setup disks:
http://www.pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id=44
ask them...

And if you succeed in making the settings program, by all means publish it :)
Thanks,
I've found datasheet's pdf too (I'm still searching for info). I also sent a mail to pcmuseum (it was a good idea).
The only thing I still don't know, is which part of the CMOS is used during the boot process to set up the registers of the NEAT chipset. I dumped my CMOS, and there are 0 at every place where I though there had to be something .... But maybe the dumping routine is bad (since it doesn't recognize the BIOS type), I'll try to write one myself.

I'll definitely let you know the result of this research ;)

Cheers,
Jozsi
edwin
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what program are you trying to use for the cmos dump?
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jvas
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edwin wrote:what program are you trying to use for the cmos dump?
I tried several ones, I don't remember their names + I wrote one myself. I got the very same output in every case. Why do you ask?
edwin
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Can you zip up the resulting file and attach it?
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jvas
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edwin wrote:Can you zip up the resulting file and attach it?
Here you are ...
Attachments
cmos.zip
(162 Bytes) Downloaded 833 times
edwin
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128 bits? That's not what i expected. I'll try and find something to make a complete dump of the bios/cmos area...
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jvas
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128 Bytes. I don't think the CMOS area is bigger. Or do you need the dump of the BIOS too?
jvas
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I found the following program, which does the job:
NEATSET.ZIP
(11.53 KiB) Downloaded 960 times
edwin
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Thanks for the feedback! Is there more stuff like that on the location? We always like to find vaults of old bios utilities...
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jvas
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