Uncreative Labs

Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London, England

Well, not really a problem, just a query!

My IBM XT has a RTC card, but I need to find the drivers for it to get it to work. Can anybody help me? I can't seem to find it in DriverGuide.

The markings on the card are: "I/O Mini II" and "P/N 202123"(sticker is in the way of the rest).

Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 21 Location: Hollywood, Florida

that looks like an AST card. here's a link that might help

http://www.ari-service.com/default.asp

good luck

Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London, England

It is an AST card (it's stamped on the metal plate! I missed it). Seems no luck with the driver on that site.

Would the serial and parallel ports work without drivers?

Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

Looks like this don't need any drivers.

The RTC may be automatically used.

The ports will be surely configured at config.sys with some DEVICE jargon. If the computer don't detect them also.

PS, looks like the DB 25 port is female, if this is right is a serial port, not a parallel

Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London, England

The computer does not seem to detect any port on this card automatically, neither the clock.

What would I enter to config.sys?

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

ast used varoious versions of it's drivers foir the clock.
not alkl are compatible. maybe the one you are usding is an older one.

the ports require no drivers.

ibm mono video card used 03BC as the parallel port
the color cga card used the next address.
( same as the one commonly used on most other systems)
there might be a address conflict. for the parallel port.
again no driver in config.sys is used or needed.

hint:
for a mouse try using device=mouse.sys if it is applicable rather than mouse com. it uses less available memory.
there is also cute mouse that uses less memory( in autioexec.bat)

Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London, England

okay, I will try that.

Assuming I have a driver for the clock that works, will it just synchronise automatically when the driver is loaded? Or will I have to add extra commands to set the system clock from the one on the card?

Is it just a matter of DEVICE=clockdriver.com in the config.sys?

Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London, England

This card is now good, I found that the AST SixPakPlus drivers can also work with this card!

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

early ast drivers esp the .bas file will not work with the later cards.
aside from the clock that requires a driver serial and parallel ports are either recignized or not.
if not there is an address conflict with another card.
usually a parallel port.
and an xt will not provide a message for serila, parallel , or game ports.

there was an IOS-2 card ( not an ast product) thay worked like the cmos,
displaying a message about the time and the floppy type at bootup.
this card lookes somewhat like the card you have.

Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London, England

wdegroot wrote:

early ast drivers esp the .bas file will not work with the later cards.
aside from the clock that requires a driver serial and parallel ports are either recignized or not.
if not there is an address conflict with another card.
usually a parallel port.
and an xt will not provide a message for serila, parallel , or game ports.

there was an IOS-2 card ( not an ast product) thay worked like the cmos,
displaying a message about the time and the floppy type at bootup.
this card lookes somewhat like the card you have.

it is .com file I found from driverguide Smile

for some reason the one posted in another thread didn't work, even though the name is the same.

How to get the serial and parallel to work? there is an asynch card (which works) in slot 8, and also a printer port on the CGA card (Hercules Colour Card) in slot 2, but I can't get the ones on the ast card.

Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 23 Location: Poland

Howard, try to find the card on TH99 and there you should find settings.
I have TH99 on my disk so you could give me name of that card and I'll quick find it.

How do you check if ports are working?
If you don't have any diagnostic program, use Check-it 2.xx, it's really useful and you can quick check ports.

Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London, England

I found this card in TH99 (http://www.thegreenhouse.us/th99/i/A-B/52492.php).

It appears that parallel and serial ports are disabled by jumper!

It is quite strange why it is like that, since XT also has parallel card and serial card. Anyway, I now removed these surplus cards.

Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 23 Location: Poland

Why don't you set those ports as second?
You'll be able to use mouse and null-modem connection at one moment.

Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London, England

I can use mouse with the port on the card! The spare serial card will live in my 5150 Smile

I will also put the Parallel card back to the XT, and have two - one for printer, one for laplink Smile

Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 23 Location: Poland

If it's card from 8th slot, it won't work with 5150.

What version of LapLink do you have?
Cuz I use microsoft Interlnk Confused