Looking for more info on creating an Alpha XDK

I talked to the guy who original built the franken alpha. He also claims that sound is not needed. I'll still keep it in mind. From my pastie above it still seems like a graphics issue, but I don't have any further information yet...

 

Yet he wont just tell you. Id probably not put too much trust in someone who pretty blatantly doesnt want to help other people to do it.

 

I'll order a sound card when I can find the model, but having issues doing so. All I know is that it's an AMR

 

i have the top model of in that picture , can that card be used ?

 

From what I can tell without taking it out, the soundcard is marked :
Wolfson
Microelectronics Ltd
WM9707_AMR_AV1_REV2

The top one was used in earlier revisions, and was upgraded to the one below. At least that is what is in mine, and mine was converted from an Alpha I to and Alpha II

 

looks like thats the chip used for the card ,

http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/documents/uploads/data_sheets/en/WM9707.pdf

 

On another note, standard Hammerheads do not work on the Alpha kit. Was worth a shot.

 

anyone know if there is anything special about the dvd drive (firmware) ?

is there a log of this somewhere ?

 

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/misc.php?do=ccarc&page=117&cm=32394#32394

 

I found some random USB cards(wich apear to be the right ones) and a lose WM9707 IC in china.
Maybe something will work, else Ill have to try to build an AlphaI or hack some files (im such a n00b at Disassembling programs)
If its realy imposibru to find an AMR card I could try making a pcb for the lose TQFP48. but I need an schematic or image to reverse-engineer such a thing.
(EDIT, Seller of the WM9707 Ic is on "vacation", chinese newyear. So maybe ill be able to recreated it when im there. but then im unable to test it no Alpha.)

question:
So, AlphaI has no sound and (top) older Nvidea Card?
AlphaII upgrade was more ram and/or upgraded from 64 to 128 always with 1 terminator stick?
and upgraded Nvidea card + an AMR Audio card? and ofcourse softwarez.

 

Doubt it (but no proof). I don't think it'll mess the boot processes up though. I do get the xbox kernel loaded into memory from a DVD-R. Have not tried any CDs.

As far as I can tell the USB card is a Xircom PortGear USB PCI card. It's what I'm using, I don't seem to be failing at USB, yet. I'm not sure if USB has even begun to init on my system. My pastie from a few posts back is at the point where I'm currently debugging. It's from the recovery. It seems as if something shuts my video device off, as far as I can tell. I'll have to do more tracing in the kernel debugger to try and learn more about what's happening. If anyone has any more information on that memory dump posted please feel free to comment .

I believe the alpha 2 had 128 mb stick with terminator, and alpha 1 was two 64mb sticks. I'm not positive on that. I had memory errors when trying to go over 128mb of memory, fyi.

I took a break from this over the weekend but will be back to tracing recovery/kernel debugger tonight.

 

found some images, they apear to belong to Old_engineer. Nothing special about, just some I dint seen in a long time.
http://zonaforo.meristation.com/foros/viewtopic.php?p=22072195&m=1

Most of you properbly already found this one (I just needed to post it):
http://annell.easyhomespace.de/index.php?p=1_10_Alpha-I-Debug-Kit

found a youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ITOQE0GIA
Belonging to an old ebay Alpha kit seller. (2012)

 

wow that card is harder than hens teeth to find in the UK , tried ebay & amazon , anyone know what chipset that card uses just to see if there is an alternate one

 

does anyone have a copy of the paperwork that wouldve come with the recoveries that they could scan

Edit: could someone confirm that the usb card uses the "OPTi 82C861" chipset ? if it does there are a few easy to find alternatives

see http://www.usbman.com/Guides/Upgrade Card Manufacturers.htm#List

 

That's the chip my Xircom has.

 

I also was looking for such a USB card, 1 seller on ebay is selling an almost exact card from Xircom, sending to europe + shipping was $50 ... no way

 

Using the same chipset, you still might need to reprogram the eeprom to set the vendor and device ID.

Something similar is Amiga land - the amiga card is £90, the PC one is £4. Reprogram the eeprom and they are identical.

 

I'm still trying to confirm what's going on with the hardware shutdown issue I'm having. I'm unable to determine if it's video or not. It still seems like it is, but if so I should be able to find out why. I'm trying to get hold of an audio card also to eliminate every possibility.

I'm not very familiar with debugging hardware and drivers so I'm learning much as I go. Checking ebay every day for alpha xdk discs as it'd make this just much easier.

Is anyone else working on this project? Does anyone else have kernel debugging setup?

 

The likelihood of alpha kit disks being on Ebay is quite slim by the way, few exist from people who want to sell.

 

I figured I'll still be watching, though.

I'm going to try and inject a different xbdm.dll into the ISO tonight to see if I can get it to work with some later xdk debugging tools.