The Goldstar Prime 2C is a controller chip, but Goldstar doesn't actually manufacture controller cards. After searching FOREVER on the net looking for references to the chip, I found mainly message boards with messages asking for the same info I was looking for. No information I needed. So that's why I made this page and registered it with a couple of search engines, so people wouldn't have to go through what I went through.

Prime 2C cards basically come in two flavours, MarkII and MarkIII. As far as I can tell there is esentially no difference between them except for more control over COM Port addressing. It's chiefly a difference in the number of jumpers. There are 11 jumpers on my card, but the boards can have up to 16 jumpers. However, the first 11 jumpers are the same on both cards. Jumpers 12 through 15 are used for manually setting COM Port IRQ's while 16 is for setting the output of the LPT (printer) port.

As I said, whether you have 11 or 16 jumpers on your card, the first 11 are the same for both. The jumper settings are in a 1-2/2-3 format. If you look at your card you should (at the very least) see the first and last jumpers labeled (example: J1 ..... J16). Each jumper has three pins (1, 2, and 3). The pin closest to the jumper label (eg: J1) is pin #1. So, as you can see, you have two possible settings for each jumper: 1 and 2 OR 2 and 3. Taking the jumper off altogether is the same as 2-3 in most cases, but I don't recommend it.

Here are the jumper settings:

	Pin 1 and 2	Pin 2 and 3
J1	Floppy Controller Enabled	Floppy Controller Disabled
J2	Primary Floppy Controller	Secondary Floppy COntroller
J3	IDE Hard Drive Controller Enabled	IDE HD Controller Disabled
J4	Primary IDE Controller	Secondary IDE Controller
J5	COM1/COM3 Serial Enabled	COM1/COM3 Serial Disabled
J6	COM1 address (3F8) Set	COM3 address (3E8) Set
J7	COM2/COM4 Serial Enabled	COM2/COM4 Serial Disabled
J8	COM2 address (2F8) Set	COM4 address (2E8) Set
J9	LPT/Printer Port Enabled	LPT/Printer Port Disabled
J10	Printer port set to LPT1	Printer port set to LPT2
J11	Game Port Enabled	Game Port Disabled
J12	COM1/COM3 set to IRQ2	COM2/COM4 set to IRQ2
J13	COM1/COM3 set to IRQ3	COM2/COM4 set to IRQ3
J14	COM1/COM3 set to IRQ4	COM2/COM4 set to IRQ4
J15	COM1/COM3 set to IRQ5	COM2/COM4 set to IRQ5
J16	PD0-PD7 Output enabled on LPT	PD0-PD7 Output disabled on LPT


Exception

Some cards do not fit these criteria. Remember, the GoldStar Prime 2C is just the chip, and not the card. The good people at TheRef(tm) have been kind enough to offer an alternate spec sheet. If your card only has 12 jumpers, or if it's a Prime 2 (not 2C) click here for alternate settings.

As well, visitor Rick Gawith has sent me his manual for the Prime 2C card. Again, it contains a slightly different setup. CLICK HERE to download the manual (ZIPed in JPG format).

Although I this information may be unnessesary, I thought I should put it here just in case. The CON ports are those sets of pins on the board where you plug in your hard drive cable, floppy cable, etc. All of these ports are usually quite clearly labeled (CON1 to CON7), but if not you can generally go by this rule: If it fits, it's right. Please keep in mind that no matter which cable you're dealing with, the RED END FACES AWAY FROM THE COVER PLATE. If you look at the cable, you'll see that one wire is red, or red-dotted, or something. This end should face away from the cover plate. If your card doesn't have it's Connector Ports mounted horizontally on the card, then the red cable should face away from the card plugs (away from where the card plugs into the motherboard). When plugging drive cables into the hard or floppy drive, the general rule of thumb is red to power, meaning the red cable should be towards the power plug-in on the drive. This isn't always the case, though, but generally won't damage anything if you get it backwards, except floppies where you just might wipe the disk. Don't keep important floppies in the drive when connecting floppy drives. Use an old disk you don't care about for your tests. Anyway, here are the CON (Connector) Descriptions:


CON1: Game Port Connector
CON2: COM1/COM3 Connector
CON3: LPT Connector
CON4: Floppy Drive Connector
CON5: COM2/COM4 Connector
CON6: IDE Hard Drive Connector
CON7: Hard Disk Active LED Connector

Exception

MY card is not designed like above. The LPT port is hardwired to the card, so I only have six (6) CONnector ports. In my case, CON3 is the IDE Hard Drive Connector. The LPT port is CON6 but it isn't labeled as such. However, CON7 is still the Hard Drive LED. Your card may be yet another exception, and you should therefor go by that previously mentioned rule: if it fits, it's right.

After all my searching on the net to find drivers for this bloody card, all I could locate were the DOS/Windows 32bit drivers. Please note, the Windows drivers are for Windows 3.1/3.11 ONLY! DO NOT attempt to install these drivers under Windows95/98 as it will cause serious problems. I've made these available here:
Click Here To Download The DOS/Windows Drivers

In case you haven't heard yet, what started as a little page for a controller has expanded into an entire page dedicated to PC Refurbishment. So if your looking for info on old/obsolete hardware, PeteWeb makes a great starting point! CLICK HERE to go to the main page.

If you have any questions about old hardware, post them to the PeteWeb Message Board, or if you'd like to pop off an e-mail with any correction or just to say "Thanks", feel free to e-mail me at peteweb@peteweb.com.