CP/M-86 for IBM PC/XT

 CP/M-86 for IBM PC/XT

I’ve been curious about running CP/M on an old PC. As it turns out Digital Research did create a CP/M version for the 8086 and it will run on an original PC with an 8088. However, by the time the AT came around, and the 286, the CP/M-86 was abandoned on the PC, in favor of MS-DOS.

I did some reading and there is a version of CP/M-86 available for download that is reported to run on PC compatibles. It originally would not boot on AT machines. But there is a hack that can change the boot disk to work on an AT. So, I downloaded the file and am now trying to figure out how to create a boot disk that may work on this XT-286 (which is an AT class machine). (Note: my original idea was to try to run CP/M-86 on the IBM XT-286. But I can’t get the floppy drive to boot so I ended up using the KLH-195 instead).

The file I downloaded included a copy of CopyQM, a shareware diskette copying program. It can be used to copy an image file to a diskette. I installed it on my KLH-195 AT machine and gave it a try.

The first try I made was to use a 360K diskette (on the KLH-195). The program sees the drive as a 1.2 drive and asks me to put in a 1.2 5.25 floppy. But I put in the 360K disk. The program continued and it seems to complete but I don’t know if it will work. Maybe I need to use a 1.2 disk? Let’s try to boot with it and see what happens.

I put the 360k disk in the IBM XT-286 and turned it on. After the memory check I got the typical two beeps, after which I hit F1 to continue to boot. The floppy drive spins up the disk but it does not boot. Instead, it continues to boot to the hard drive, and I end up at C:\>. It doesn’t work. Let’s try a 1.2 disk.

I found a 1.2 disk and used NC to format it to 1.2MB. I noticed that the choices of format in NC included 320K and 360K. I don’t know if that will be significant. I think the original CP/M-86 disk size was 320K. Anyway, I’m going to continue with the 1.2MB format and do another session with CopyQM.

I ran CopyQM again. This time I chose to select “Format conversion” and selected 1.2M. I did not set the format conversion to 360K when I tried this the first time on the 360K disk. That may have made a difference. Ok, let’s continue, with the format as 1.2M. The program finished and I took the disk over to the XT-286 and tried to boot it. It didn’t work. Same as before with the 360K disk. It spins the A; drive but does not boot, it continues to boot from the hard drive and leaves me at the C:\> prompt.

Lets try the 360K disk again, but this time let’s format it to 320K. It didn’t boot.

I tried to boot some other 5.25 floppy disks on the XT-286. I can’t get it to boot with a floppy. I may have a problem with the XT-286. Let’s try booting on the KLH-195. But it will have to be a 3.5”.

I ran the CopyQM program and tried to create a 1.44M 3.5 boot floppy. The 1.2M disk was bad so I switched to making a 720K disk instead. I tried booting it on the KLH-195. I got a message saying *** Cannot find CPM.SYS or CCPM.SYS ***. At least I got something this time. Let’s try it on the PB VX88. Same error message.

Maybe it’s a problem with the types of drives I have. Maybe I need a special drive on the XT-286 to boot CP/M? Let’s try another image file.

I downloaded a version of the CPM86 disk that was imaged as a 1.44M disk. I started up OpenQM again and tried again to make the disk on a 1.44M disk. I did not select to do a format conversion. It took awhile to find a 1.44M disk that would format and finish. But eventually I got a “completed” disk. I rebooted on the KLH-195 with the disk in the A drive - it just hangs. Drive light stays on and a blinking cursor. Try a hard boot (I did a Ctrl-Alt-Del when I tried the reboot the first time). Shut down and then turned the power back on. Nothing. No boot.

I tried again with the same image file (CPM86B.144) but this time I used a 720K disk. Just to see what would happen. The image appears to be a 640K image. It doesn’t work. Try using format conversion. It seems to “convert” to 720K. I should go back and try format convert to 1.44. When I did the 1.44 I did not convert. I went back and redid the 1.44 disk by choosing “Format Conversion to 1.44M”. Then I’ll try booting both the 720K and the 1.44M disks.

I rebooted with the 1.44 disk in the KLH-195. I got the error message again, but at least it didn’t just hang like last time. Now try the 720K on the VX88. Same error as above.

So, what is the difference between a disk that hangs and one that gives an error report? Does this mean I am getting closer to a boot when I get an error message?

I found another couple of files that said they would work for 1.44M and 720K disks to boot on an IBM PC/AT. (from here: http://www.cpm.z80.de/binary.html) I downloaded and am trying them now. They come with a batch file to make the operation easier to use with CopyQM and they supposedly use a special piece of software on the disks to allow them to boot CP/M. Let’s give it a try.

I completed both the 1.44M and 720K disks. Now let’s try booting the 1.44M on the KLH-195.

That worked! I got the KLH-195 AT booted with the CP/M 86 disk. Next try the VX88.

Yes! That works also. The VX88 is now running CP/M-86 with two floppies.

On the boot of this version it says there is a version for 1.2M. I wonder if I can use the 1.44 image file for a 1.2M diskette? Or do I need to find a 1.2M image?

Also, I have to figure out how to get CP/M software to load from floppy, or maybe a hard disk directory.

So far I have been unable to get CP/M-86 on the XT-286. But I have been able to get it booted on both the KLH-195 and the VX88 using floppy boot drives. What I can’t figure out is how to use additional floppies and copy files between them. CP/M-86 does not use anything beyond a 360K disk, which I don’t have. (There seems to be a problem with booting from the floppy on the XT-286. I can’t test CP/M-86 on this computer until I can solve the floppy boot issue.)

I did find this on a web page:

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It would also be very helpful if you could install a 360k 5.25-inch

disk drive in your computer.  Don't use your 1.2 meg drive; CP/M-86

doesn't know about such things.

In the meantime, you can use your 3.5-inch floppy drive as a "360k"

drive by doing this:

    - Put a write-protect tab (or some black electrical tape) over

      the "high density" hole in a 1.44 meg floppy disk.

    - Boot CP/M-86 from the hard disk.  Then use DSKMAINT.CMD to

      format that floppy disk (as "double-sided").

    - You'll now have a floppy disk with a standard CP/M-86 314k

      format on it.

You can then use this floppy as if it were a true CP/M-86 5.25-inch

disk.  22DISK and other DOS-to-CP/M file transfer utilities should

recognize it as an IBM CP/M-86 disk.

 

its better to take a 720 kb Disk because of better magnetic

characteristics

(the thickness of the magnetic layer is different and this can cause

problems!!)

 

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I have downloaded 22DISK and will give this a try.

I installed 22Disk on the KLH-195 and ran it. I set the format to IBM PC DSDD 48 tpi 5.25” format. Then I set the drive to A:, which is a 3.5” 1.44. Then I put in a 720K disk and chose “Format a CP/M disk” and then typed “G” to start the process. It finished with “Format Complete -No Errors”. So, I should now have a 320K CP/M-86 disk on a 3.5” disk. Let’s try to copy a file to it and then move that file onto the boot disk. I want the 144FEAT files.

I unzipped the 144feat2.zip file to the hard drive in C:\HOLDTANK\144FEAT. I want the following files on  my CP/M-86 boot disk:

144PAT2.CMD - the driver

144PREP2.CMD - prepares diskettes as higher capacity disks (720, 1.2, 1.44)

I copied the two files to this disk using 22Disk. When I tried to get a directory list in CP/M-86 it came up NO FILE. I put the boot disk back in and hit Ctrl-C. Then I asked for a DIR and it works. I tried copying a file to the M: drive using pip. I couldn’t get it to copy.

How do I copy a file from drive A: to drive A:?

I tried to use DSKMAINT in CP/M to verify the disk created by 22Disk. It came back with error “Sector not found”. Try formatting it in CP/M-86 and then try copying to it from 22Disk. It didn’t work. DSKMAINT formatted with 80 tracks and 22Disk does not recognize it. Try a 360K disk in the 5.25 drive. I re-set 22Disk to use drive B: and then used 22Disk to format a 360K floppy to CP/M format. It finished with no errors.

I copied the two files (144PAT2.CMD, 144PREP2.CMD) to the disk using 22Disk. Now reboot to CP/M-86 and try to copy the files off this 5.25 disk and onto the boot disk. I am able to get a directory of the B: disk but I tried to use PIP to copy the files and it won’t work. Maybe I have the wrong syntax? Yep - bad syntax. I forgot the “=” (equal) sign. In PIP it is:

PIP a:=b:*.cmd

DOS does not use the equal sign and the source and destination are reversed. I had remembered the reversal of source and destination but I forgot the equal sign. 

OK, I got the files moved over to the boot drive. Now, can I figure out how to create 144FEAT disks?

I need to start with a DOS formatted 1.2M disk, so I rebooted to DR-DOS and formatted a 1.2M floppy to the standard 1.2M DOS format. Then rebooted to CP/M-86 using the 3.5” boot disk, that now has the 144FEAT programs on it, and the 1.2M disk in the B: drive. The instructions say to create a 9Kb area of FIDD memory using the SETUP program. So, I ran SETUP, set the FIDD to 9K and saved back to the same boot disk. Then rebooted. The FIDDS was reported as 9K on screen.

I ran the 144FEAT2.CMD from the A> prompt of the boot disk, using the “V” option. It ended by reporting that the “1.44 MB Feature” software is already active. Apparently the boot disk already has this built-in, running from the file 144BLDR2.CMD on bootup. In other words, this “Driver” file does not need to be run from the command line in this version of CP/M-86, it’s already installed by default. (Although the FIDD still needed to be set to 9K). OK, so now to “prepare” a high capacity 1.2M disk for use with CP/M-86.

(Note: I was able to copy the 144FEAT files to the 720K boot disk I am using on the VX88. I removed both disks (on the KLH-195) and inserted the 320K disk in Drive B: and the 720K boot disk from the VX88 into Drive A:, then ^C, then PIP a:=b:*.cmd to copy the files over (only had these two files on this 320K disk for now). Then I put the 720K boot disk back in the VX88 and did ^C, then DIR, and the files are there. Great! Now I have the 144FEAT files on both systems)

To prepare a 1.2M disk for CP/M-86 I need to run the program named 144PREP2.CMD. The options need to be set to use 1.2M media. Like this:

144PREP2 B: 1V

This tells 144PREP2 to use the B: drive, use 1.2M format, and display the diagnostic messages.

I ran the program and it completed the prep on the 1.2M disk. Then I used PIP to copy CPM.SYS and the other files from the boot disk to the newly prepared 1.2M disk. It works! Now I have a fully working dual-floppy CP/M-86 system on the KLH-195, with 1.44 3.5” A: drive and 1.2 5.25” B: drive. Next to do the same for the VX88, dual 720K floppies.

Before moving over to the VX88 I re-did the 3.5” floppy using 22Disk. It wouldn’t read on the KLH-195 but maybe it will on the VX88. Nope. Doesn’t read the files. STAT seems to read the disk info but I can’t get DIR or PIP to work. It seems that 22Disk only works with 5.25” drives. Is there a similar program that supports 3.5” drives? Probably not. CP/M was not aware of 3.5” drives. Ok, now to try the 144PREP2 program on the VX88 with 720K disks.

144PREP2 B: 7V

The first time I ran this I got an error. I realized it was because I was trying to use the disk that was created by 22DISK. In order for 144PREP2 to work the disk has to be formatted by DOS as a 720K. I tried again with a DOS formatted 720K disk. It got further, but ended in an error again. I tried again with another disk. Error again, seek failure. Let’s try formatting the disks in the VX88. I had used NC on the KLH-195 to format the disks. Maybe using the actual drive from the computer I am trying to use will make a difference. I rebooted into DOS 3.3 and ran the format from there. Didn’t work. The VX88 is only formatting to 360K on the B: drive. I am now trying to format to 720K using the A: drive. Not working. Not sure why I can’t format 720K on this machine. It’s been a while since I setup this machine. I do remember something about adding drivers for the floppy and there was something to do with there now being a drive C: and D: as reassigned from A: and B:. But I don’t remember what the deal is.

I tracked it down. Turns out I needed to use the format program on the D: drive to format a floppy in the B: drive. I have a driver loaded in Config.sys that allows using the B: drive as a 720K drive on drive D: and the A: drive is drive C: when using the driver. This is only needed when formatting to 720K on this machine. It will read 720K disks made on other machines and write to them. But the special driver is needed when formatting to 720K. So, instead of using the /f:720 switch like in DOS 5.0 we use the standard “format d:” command and the special driver takes over and acts on the B: drive in 720K instead of the 360K that is supported in the BIOS. So, I did get a formatted 720K disk formatted in this computer’s B: drive. Now back to CP/M-86 to try 144PREP2 on this disk.

I tried “144PREP2 B: 7V” again. As before it got to the end and reported an error. So, I tried the “Quick” option instead - “144PREP2 B: Q7V”. That worked! And I was able to PIP the CPM.SYS file over to the newly prepared 720K disk and get it to show up with DIR and STAT. It seems to be working. The key was to use the “Quick” option.

Now, to get some programs on these disks. A word processor and a spreadsheet? A game?

veplus86.zip - VEDIT Plus 2.03/2.33 for CP/M-86

Editor, comes with a PC version already pre-configured.

Copied to DOS in C:\Holdtank. Unzip files to \Temp. Select files to fit 320K disk.

Used 22DISK to copy files to 5.25” 320K floppy.

Rebooted to CP/M-86

Use PIP to move files from 320K disk to 1.44M disk for temporary storage.

Use PIP to move files to a 1.2M floppy for daily use. Copies to 720K for VX88.

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I can only use 314K 5.25” disks formatted with 22DISK to copy files from DOS to CP/M. Once I get the files onto a CP/M disk I can use the higher capacity disks. There is a way to modify the 22DISK definition files to add the 144FEAT disks but it is too complicated. For now, I will stay with the 314K disks. I think I can also figure out how to transfer through a serial port with a LapLink cable. The file sizes are pretty small in CP/M so I have been able to move files with the 314K size disks.

I have copied and tried the following programs:

Word Processors/Editors:

VPlus - Vedit Plus, Word Processor

Ted - Editor

Write - quick note taker, not a full editor

Spreadhseet:

MicroCalc - very small spreadsheet, it works but it is small and simple

Database:

Dbase II - full database program

Utilities:

XDIR - gives alphabetically sorted directory and file sizes, and space available on disk

SD - same as XDIR

VFILER - allows viewing and marking files in a directory, copy & delete, etc.

Several ARC/SQUEEZE/LBR archive utilities

Games:

Gulper - Pac-Man type game

Pong2 - Pong type game

Tetris3 - Tetris type game

Tic - 1-player Tic-Tac-Toe

TicTac - 2-player Tic-Tac-Toe

Worm - Tron type game

Snake - avoid the snake, gobble up coins, escape the room

Hangman - text based, Hangman game

Gunner - text based, enter angle for gun to hit target

Blackjack - text based, 21/Blackjack

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Haven’t tried printer yet.

Haven’t tried terminal/serial port communication yet

Old Timer Sharing

 Old Timer Sharing

Before we had the World Wide Web and Social Media how did we share our “collections” or our knowledge about our own computers and software?

These days we can look up all sorts of information about a particular model of computer no matter how old it is. We just open a browser and use a search engine to search for our model and up pops a long list of places on the web where we can learn more about our computers.

If we have a “collection” of computers and software we can search for other people who have shared their collection and placed it on the web or on a social media sharing site. We can see pictures and read and add comments. All of this is only a few taps and clicks away on our always on computers attached to the web through a broadband internet connection.

But before we had this type of communication “super-highway” what did we do when we wanted to share our collections and interests in computers?

In the early days of hobbyist computing we had what we called Computer User Groups. Long before it was common to connect “on-line” through the telephone, or early internet type networks, we had local community “in-person” user groups. These were groups of people who got together at regular intervals at some local venue, like a community center or college meeting room, and shared their knowledge of their computers and software.

Usually, these “hobbyists” were using computers in their day job and were looking for others who used the same computers and software. Some of these people worked for huge corporations and others worked as small businesses or were home users. 

In the early days of “personal” computers there were many different types of computers and software and they did not all easily “talk” to one another. The operating systems and storage media (tape cassettes, floppy and hard disks, etc.) were incompatible and most of the time the software that ran on one computer type would not run on another type. This led to specialized user groups that supported one particular brand, or type, of computer. Sometimes the user group was organized around general “computing” and the members shared their knowledge about their own particular model while learning about someone else’s model and how they differed.

Back in these early days computers that were used by large corporations were extremely expensive and very large and hard to move. Most computers used by corporations were not what we call “personal” computers. These computers were usually shared by many people in the business and sometimes connected to other computers in the same company and only used inside of that company. If you were a “user” of this type of computer you may have looked for other “users” either inside the same company, or in the greater community, so that you could share knowledge and techniques, or “horror stories”, about your computers.

As computers became smaller and more portable they soon started being used by individuals for their own purposes and were not connected to the “company”. Or a small business might have some “personal computers” that would be used both in the business and by the individuals for more than one purpose. The personal computer may be used by the business during the day and then used for individual purposes after hours or overnight.

Not long after “computers” became more “personal”, and portable, the “home computer” users joined with the corporate and business users in these User Groups. People could now bring their own computers to the meeting and share it with the other members. The larger User Groups would have Special Interest Groups inside the greater group where members with similar equipment would gather and share.

The User Group would have a Newsletter where stories would be submitted by members and collections or special interests could be shared. The meetings would have a presentation, where a member or a special guest would give a talk and share. The meetings would have time for members to get together and share more person-to-person and show others what they have in their collection and how it works. Software, magazines, and books could be shared and traded (sometimes dubiously).

To share a “collection” would usually mean typing up a “list” of your equipment along with specifications and printing it to paper. This list could be copied or published in the newsletter, or the “bulletin board” on the wall of the meeting room. Pictures could be pasted into the list and photocopied and were usually of poor quality and in black ink on white paper. 

As personal computers became more powerful and software became more capable we started seeing color pages for the newsletters and lists of collections. Digital pictures taken with a personal digital camera could be imported into documents and printed out on color printers. Color photocopies could be made for distribution to the group or shared with other groups with similar interests in the local area, or across the country, by mail or package delivery services.

As the cost of computers started to come down, and average people could afford to buy them as either business tools or home entertainment devices, people started to connect them by regular telephone lines. At the same time large corporations used local networks and had special telephone lines that would connect their networks across the country or the world. As these telephone connections became reliable people started to use them to communicate and share the same type of information they were sharing at their local User Groups. 

At this point the User Groups started to move “on-line” where they could have a farther reach. Sometimes a larger group would have both a local presence and a regional or national “on-line” group. These online groups would often meet on “Bulletin Boards” (or BBS’s) or through on-line Special Interest Groups sponsored by large corporations through an “Information Service”.

Tandy 1000HD

 Tandy 1000HD

I picked this computer out of an old house that was being renovated. It was under the stairs and I asked the owner if I could take it and he said yes. It was under some plastic but it was very dirty and I wasn’t sure if it would work or not. I brought it home and started cleaning it up.

I completely disassembled everything and carefully cleaned the motherboard and keyboard and then put it back together before turning it on for the first time. This Tandy PC came with the main CPU unit, a keyboard, and a Mono Tandy Monitor. The 1000HD came with a Hard Drive pre-installed and there was one 5.25” floppy drive, probably the original 360K drive. There was a RAM card installed in one of the ISA slots and there was a Hard Drive controller in one of the other slots.

I plugged in the monitor with the composite cable already attached to the monitor then I plugged in the keyboard. I plugged in the power cords for the CPU and the monitor to a power strip but I did not turn the power strip on yet. After all connections were made I turned on the power strip. Then I first switched on the monitor and then flipped on the main switch for the CPU unit. I adjusted the monitor and I could see the memory size reported as 640K. It stayed that way for quite a while and eventually came back with an error and asked me to put in a system disk. This led me to believe the hard drive was not working or was not being recognized by the BIOS.

I powered down and then I found a 360K boot disk from my XT-286 and put it in the floppy drive and flipped the CPU switch on again. I got the same error message and even though the LED light came on the floppy it would not spin up and I could not boot the floppy. I tried to clean up the floppy drive and tried again but I could not get the floppy drive to spin up. I decided to try swapping in another floppy drive. I read up on the 1000HD and it did support 3.5” drives at 720K. I read about setting the jumpers on the drive and the fact that the cable used was not the same as the floppy cable used in the IBM PC. I grabbed a 3.5” floppy I had that was noted as a 720K drive. I set the jumper to drive 0 and reused the same cable already in the computer. I used a power cable extension to allow me to place the floppy on the desk outside the case. The floppy already had an edge card adapter connected.

I put in a 3.5” floppy with MS-DOS/Tandy 3.3 (from my Tandy 1400FD) and powered on. The drive did spin up but it would not read the disk. I tried another system floppy but it would not read. I suspected that this 720K drive was not working. I found another 3.5” drive, a 1.44 drive, and swapped it in place of the previous 720K drive. I again set the jumpers and I moved the edge card adapter over to this new 1.44 drive. I put the same DOS 3.3 disk in the drive and turned on the power. This time I got it to boot! It was alive! So, for now, I have a 1.44 floppy drive attached instead of the original 360K 5.25” drive. I would find out later that most 1.44 drives will operate as a 720K drive when the BIOS only supports 720K, as in this case. So, technically I have a 1.44 drive but it is being identified by the BIOS as a 720K drive and it only reads 720K disks.

Next, I attempted to get a directory of the C: drive. But I could not get the hard drive to respond to a directory command. I could hear the hard drive spinning up at power on but it appeared to be otherwise dead. I read up on the controller and I inspected the controller to make sure everything was connected properly and that the pins were set correctly. I could find no defect in the settings or the cables. I decided I would try to do a low level format using Debug. I didn’t want to lose whatever was on the hard drive but I felt I had no choice but to try to get the drive to come to life with a format. I entered the debug commands and it found the controller and the disk drive. But when I attempted to continue the routine it stopped with an error. I tried it a couple more times with the same result. Maybe the hard drive was damaged and would not format.

I pulled the hard drive out of the case and made sure I had the cables connected properly. I turned the drive upside down and set it on top of the power supply. Then I turned on the power again to boot from the floppy and again attempt the low level format one more time. To my surprise I was asked for the date and time and then the computer finished booting to PC DOS 2 and I was at a C> prompt. The hard drive booted! It turns out that all I had to do was turn the drive over and now it works. I have had no problems reading and writing to the hard drive since I turned it upside down. I am afraid to install it back the way it was inserted before. I will instead re-install it in this inverted position since the cables are long enough to make the twist. I may have to drill some holes in the original bracket so I can fit the screws to the hard drive.

The hard drive has a copy of PC-DOS 2.x and both WordPerfect and Wordstar. I was looking for DeskMate but it was not there. I moved WP and WS to a separate directory and attempted to install DeskMate and a couple of games. Eventually I decided to reformat the hard drive and I put Tandy/MS-DOS 3.3 on the hard drive and made it bootable. I found a copy of DeskMate 2 and also installed it to the Hard Drive. I did not need to keep PC-DOS or WP and WS. I want to set this up to show a couple of games using the PCjr/Tandy features this unit was meant for.

In order to show the Tandy/PCjr graphics features I decided to replace the mono composite monitor with a CGA monitor. I only have one CGA monitor, a Goldstar, and it was attached to the XT-286. But the XT-286 also has a mono card so I removed the CGA card and the Goldstar monitor from the XT-286 and attached a mono monitor from a non-working Leading Edge PC. I moved the Goldstar CGA monitor over to this Tandy 1000HD.

I expected to be able to experience the Tandy/PCjr graphics for CGA by simply attaching the CGA monitor to the RGB port on the back of the 1000HD. But so far it just looks like regular CGA - just like it did on the XT-286. DeskMate does not look any different. And some games I had on floppy don’t look any different. I did some reading and it seems that some programs will only use the Tandy graphics on the composite monitor output and not on the CGA output. I am still trying to figure it out but I did attach a color composite monitor I have and it works. But I still haven’t seen any special Tandy/PCjr graphics. The software that I have does not seem to work with the Tandy graphics. I will attempt to get some software that supports Tandy graphics, preferably on the CGA monitor.

Now that I have confirmed that this PC works I am going to finish cleaning it up and place it on the desk next to the XT-286 and the Packard Bell VX-88. Then I will try to find some software to make the Tandy graphics work.

In my computer line up this is now my earliest working PC or PC Compatible. It is earlier than the Packard Bell VX-88 and the XT-286 by almost two years. I want to set all three of these PC’s in line with one another and be able to show the Tandy in color, the VX-88 in mono (With both DOS and CP/M-86), and the XT-286 in VGA mono. (I think I have a VGA card and a VGA white monitor that will work). This will show the progression from the typical business uses and the color that was usually used in home computers.

—--

3/12/22

After sitting for a few months I finally got to finishing cleaning and assembling this PC. I cleaned the keyboard and case and re-assembled the hard drive and floppy drive. I installed the hard drive upside down since it works in that orientation. The floppy is an off-white 1.44 and I don’t have a complete panel that works. I tried to take the black panel from another floppy but it wouldn’t fit. For now I just have it installed without a full panel. It’s looks fine and I don’t really have a choice. I don’t care to work that hard on making it look original. I’m mostly interested in the software.

I started up the computer and it works. But the keyboard cable or connector sometimes needs to be massaged before it will work. I got it to work but I am not sure if the problem is in the wire of the keyboard or the connector on the main board.

I downloaded an image of another user’s Tandy 1000 (Trixter) that is supposed to have a bunch of useful utilities, including for the Tandy Graphics and Sound. I will attempt to move some of that software over to my Tandy 1000HD and finish setting this computer up as a demo. I will have to wait since we are in the middle of a storm and having some power issues today. For now, I moved this computer over to the stand next to the Packard Bell PC but have not powered it up yet.

—--

03/13/22

In order to use Laplink to transfer files I needed to add a serial port. I found a Serial+Parallel card and installed it in the last remaining expansion shot. When I went to plug in the cable to the serial port I could not fit the connector. The port is too close to the case and blocks access to the port. I removed the back panel of the case and cut the area above the new serial port using a pair of snips. I then tried to refit the cable and it worked.

I reassembled the computer and monitor and turned it on to see if the serial port would work. I ran Laplink and set it to Serial port 2. That didn’t work, it hung the computer and I had to reboot. After reboot I again started Laplink and set it to use Serial Port 1. That worked. I now have this computer connected to the Gateway 2000 by Laplink and am ready to transfer some files.

I forgot how to manage the network in Win95. When I tried to use WS_FTP, on the Gateway 2000, to connect to my Filezilla Server on my Windows 7 machine I got an error. I had to look up how to confirm network settings in Win95. It turned out that I had the ethernet cable disconnected so that I could use the port on the switch for another machine. I plugged the ethernet cable back in but still did not get connected. I rebooted and let Windows95 set up the network again after having the cable connected. It worked. After rebooted I had access through the LAN to my Filezilla Server

Now I will move a file over to the Gateway 2000 using the FTP server, then copy it to the Tandy 1000HD using Laplink. Let’s start with the game Tetris. It worked. And the game is clearly using all the Tandy colors, not just the typical 4 CGA colors. Now, let’s find something else to help illustrate the Tandy features.

I did find a few games that illustrate the Tandy Graphics as compared to the typical IBM CGA graphics. I would like to find a couple games that play in both modes so I can easily illustrate the difference. 

NEC Powermate 286 Plus

 NEC Powermate 286 Plus

03/15/22

I think I got this computer from the landfill but I’m not sure. I may have got it with the surplus pieces I got when I got the two PS/2 machines. At any rate, I have been wanting to trythis computer out for as long as I have those PS/2 machines. After I failed with both PS/2 machines I decided to try getting this NEC machine cleaned up.

It was not too bad inside so I decided to try to power it on before I spent too much time cleaning. If it is dead I won’t bother. I attached the IBM 8513 monitor and the Dell PS/2 keyboard and powered it on. I came to life and reported the BIOS and memory check then reported that it failed to boot.

I tried booting from a DOS 3.3 disk and failed. It was a 720k disk. I figured this is probably a 1.44m drive so I found a 1.44m boot disk for DR-DOS and tried that. It worked! It booted to DR-DOS. I tried to run a game off another 720k disk. It didn’t read it. I found some more 1.44m disks from the DR-DOS install set. I was able to get a directory listing and typed a file to screen. I failed to read a few times. The heads are probably dirty or maybe the drive is going to fail. But I have working computer. Now I will go ahead and clean it.

—--

07/02/2022

It took me until today to finally start cleaning this computer. I’ve been working on the MicroLab 286 and the VIP 200 286, both of which are having issues. I set those aside for now and decided to start cleaning up this NEC 286. Unlike the other two 286’s this machine has built-in floppy and hard drive interfaces. It also has an integrated video and PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports. It should be easier to get this 286 working without any other interface cards. I will probably need to run a setup disk to get the hard drive initialized.

I removed the drives, power supply, and the interface cards and riser card. Then I removed the motherboard. I like computers like this. It is very well built and obviously superior to the no-name brands I have been working on with the other two 286’s. I am ready to clean the boards and power supply and case. There is no battery damage, just some dust and grime. It should clean up nicely. The battery is an external battery attached by a cable and held to the back wall with a velcro strip. I will need to get a new battery before I attempt to set up the BIOS.

There is a label on the drive cage that shows how to set the dip switches for the integrated ports, Parallel, serial, etc. It mentions setting the speed for the 287 FPU. But I am not sure if this computer has the 287 already installed or not. I don’t see a chip that says 287. There is an empty socket next to the keyboard chip but it is not labeled. It is probably the socket for the optional 287. I just don’t know yet.

The motherboard has some markings:

NEC-16T Made in Japan

G8EUL B2_

136-456295-B-02

Chip: N80286-12 Intel 1985 L0031180

Chip: VLSI 8944EV 170955 VL16C451-QC

There are a couple of threads on Vogons and VCFED about the Powermate series and the NEC setup utilities. I think I can download a setup program and write it to a floppy and run it under DOS.

I cleaned all the dust off the motherboard and interface cards. I blew out the power supply and case. Then I reassembled the computer, attached my external 6V battery tray, and powered it on. It worked. I was able to boot a DOS 5.0 1.44M floppy. I did a cleaning of the floppy heads with the cleaning diskette and some IPA. Then I tried again to boot. It worked. I was again able to boot to DOS 5.0 off my 1.44M DOS boot diskette.

Next will be to download the setup program and copy it to a diskette. I think I will attempt to format a diskette in the NEC floppy and then copy to it from my Windows 7 computer using the USB floppy drive. If that doesn’t work I’ll move the files over to a DOS machine and try to copy it there.

I was able to format two 1.44M diskettes in the NEC floppy. I was able to copy files to these disks on the Windows 7 machine using the USB drive. They read in the NEC. I was able to start the setup program and it runs. However, the hard drive installed in this machine is an ST3660A and is 545.5MB. There are no disk types that match this drive. I will try Gsetup.

I have not been able to get the hard drive working. I have tried three different drives. One was a 44MB drive that was on the list of Drive Types. But it still won’t work. I keep getting an error at boot that says Hard Disk Controller Failure. I think the controller is bad, or disabled. I don’t know how to disable the built-in controller. The dip switches only refer to the floppy controller. Maybe you have to disable the FD controller to also disable the HD controller. At any rate, I don’t have another controller. All I have are the same two controllers that were not working with the VIP 286.

It would help if I could find a manual for the computer.

To finish troubleshooting I need to first get a new controller that is known to work.

But, I do have a working computer. The floppy works and I can load programs from floppy disk. If I can’t get the hard drive working maybe I’ll make it a dual floppy system.

I tested a game to verify the VGA color screen. House of Cards works fine from floppy, in EGA graphics.

I attached the 3.5” floppy from the MicroLab 286 as the B: drive. Then I ran the setup program and added it as a 3.5” 1.44 drive. Then I entered the Hard Drive as Not Installed. Then I rebooted. The error message about the hard drive controller failure did not come on screen and the computer booted from the A: drive. 

There was no delay, it was pretty quick to boot from the floppy. Before, with the hard drive enabled in setup, there was a long delay and then eventually an error message, and then it would boot from floppy. I hope the controller itself is working and that it is just a matter of having bad hard drives hooked up.

I was able to read disks from the B: drive (the one taken from the MicroLab). I was able to launch a game from the B: drive and it seems to be working fine. I was able to format disks and copy to the drive. I ran Checkit off a 720k disk. It all works. This drive is good. This confirms that the controllers I was trying to use on the other computers are bad.

So, for now, until I can get another controller I will have a dual 3.5” floppy system. Maybe I will try one of the Compact Flash drives instead of an actual hard drive.

Next is to figure out how to attach the B: drive. This computer uses rails and the bay is a little oversized. I will have to use some screws and spacers to mount both drives and keep the A: drive on top. I ended up moving one of the sled rails from the A: drive down to the B: drive, both on the right side, and attaching a couple of metal rails on the left sides. That worked to keep the drives in place. I screwed in the mounting screws on the front and tested. When I first powered up I got an error and F1 would not work to recognize the disk in A: I powered down and reseated all the cables. Then I put in the boot disk in drive A: before powering on. After powering on the computer booted from the A: drive. I ran a game from the B: drive. It is all working.

Now to clean the case cover and face and put it all back together. I will use this as a dual-floppy system until I can get a Compact Flash interface card to try. I also need to get more battery trays. I am going to take this battery tray out to use it on other test systems. That will kill the CMOS and I’ll have to start over when I get back to this machine.

—--

11/13/22

Without the CMOS battery I have to boot with a DOS floppy and then run “Setup.exe.” from the setup/gsetup disk. I have both the NEC setup program and the generic Gsetup on the same floppy. I ran the 286_12 exe program and it copied the setup program to the diskette. All I have to do now is run “setup.exe” and it will start the setup program. Gsetup also works.

This is working fine as a dual floppy system. After running setup I can take out the setup floppy disks and run any other programs from floppy, such as PFS:First Choice.

After shutdown I need to re-run the setup.exe program first. Then I can run a program from a diskette. This is just like the days when I ran my Tandy 1400FD as a dual floppy system.

—--

12-17-22

I wanted to finish setting up a hard drive on this machine so I could install Concurrent DOS. I spent quite a bit of time trying to get either a compact flash card or an IDE drive working off the built-in controller and using the Setup utility. Nothing I tried worked. I tried the 1GB compact flash hooked up to the hard drive cable hooked up to the hard drive header on the riser card. I also tried the 32Mb card I took out of my old Nikon camera. I tried every “Type” in the BIOS that I thought might work. Nothing worked. I kept getting a Hard Drive Controller error. I was thinking maybe the error was the hard drive but maybe it’s the controller itself. I also tried three IDE drives and also tried to use both the Western Digital and the Maxtor hard drive overlay floppies. Neither of those saw the IDE drive. I think maybe the hard drive controller is bad.

I decided to try the XT-IDE interface card that was “burned” in the Leading Edge Model D. I was concerned that it may be defective and damage something in this NEC machine. But I went ahead and installed it and connected the same CF card I had set up on the Model D. It worked! It booted DOS 5 off the CF card. I tried to determine if it was overheating at all. I saw no signs of overheating. So, I decided to try to use this XT-IDE interface with the 32MB CF card and try to install Concurrent DOS.

I started by using the DOS 5.0 diskette that I had FDISK on and tried to remove the existing partitions and fix the MBR. It didn’t work. I couldn’t blank the CF drive. I looked up on the internet and found a program called “WipeDisk.exe” on the lo-tech site that was designed to remove the partitions on the primary hard disk. I downloaded it on the Win10 machine and copied to a floppy and then to my DOS 5.0 disk I was using. Then I ran it against the C: drive (the 32M CF card) and it worked to reset the partitions. I also fixed the MBR with “FDISK /MBR”. 

Then I removed the DOS 5.0 disk and inserted the Concurrent DOS XM disk #1 and rebooted into CDOS XM. After booting I ran FDISK and set up a partition on the CF hard drive and set it as bootable. After it finished I rebooted with the A: floppy and then ran the install routine using F10. It installed CDOS to the new C: drive and ran a setup for the keyboard and screen and printer. Then I removed the floppy disk and rebooted into the new Concurrent DOS XM system running on the CF “hard drive”, booted from the XT-IDE BIOS. It worked!

I now have this NEC computer running on a CF hard drive and running Concurrent DOS XM. I moved the 6-volt battery backup over from the PC Partner computer so the CMOS is keeping its settings. It’s all working now. This is a nice 286! Now I have the option to remove the second 3.5” 1.44 floppy and put in a CD-ROM. [Not sure if I can use a CD-ROM on the second/slave drive from the XT-IDE. I’m assuming the built-in HD controller is bad.] Maybe I can get the 360k drive from the Tandy 1000HD working?

Note - I can also use the DOS 5.0 CF card by simply taking out the 32M CF card and putting in the 1GB CF card before booting. I also may decide to reformat the 32M CF card and install DR-DOS 5 and then install CDOS XM over the top of that. [I did go ahead and install DR-DOS 5, but it did not require reformatting. The DR-DOS installed to its own subdirectory and made some changes to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. CDOS XM does load through LOADSYS after DR-DOS is already loaded].

—--

12/18/22

I have been experimenting with running CP/M-86 programs in this CDOS XM system. This machine does not have a 5.25” drive so I cannot directly use CP/M disks using the “CPM” command. I tried using the CPM command with some 3.5” disks but was unable to make it work. I tried using a 3.5” 314k disk that was formatted on the KLH 286 running CP/M-86 but it would not read. I also tried formatting it with 22DSK from DR-DOS 7 in the KLH 286. Again, it would not read on this NEC machine. CDOS also does not read disks with the 144Feat overlay used by my version of CP/M-86.

So, I thought about it a bit and decided to try to copy some CP/M programs to a regular DOS disk and then copy the files from that disk to the hard drive. That worked. Here is the process I used to get the CP/M files to this NEC machine using DOS disks.

Booted the KLH to CP/M-86.

Inserted a previously formatted 314k 5.25” disk in drive B:

Copied the CP/M program files from A: to B: using PIP.

Shut down and rebooted to DR-DOS 7.

Made sure there were no files in C:\TEMP.

Started 22DSK with CMENU.

Set CP/M drive to B:

Copied CP/M files to DOS, to C:\TEMP

Quit 22DSK to DOS.

Put regular DOS disk in A:

Copied all files from C:\TEMP to A:

Removed disk from A: and moved it to the A: drive of this NEC running CDOS XM.

Made a new directory on the hard drive. Changed to the new directory.

Copied all files on A: to new directory on hard drive.

Ran CP/M programs by typing the name of the .CMD program at prompt. (i.e. WRITE)

This worked for WRITE. But I noted that the screen does some weird colors. Also some of the text was missing when I “typed” the document from the prompt. Also, TED loaded but was blinking and scrolling with weird characters. I think the terminal display is wrong for the CP/M-86 programs.

So, there does seem to be some issues with running some CP/M programs. But I can at least move them onto this machine using the above technique. I think if I had a 5.25” drive that could read native CP/M disks I may be able to use CP/M disks directly, instead of transferring the files to a DOS disk first. I believe this is what the “CPM” command was intended for. But it doesn’t really matter as long as I can move the CP/M files onto this system in some other way.

—--

12/18/22

I decided to install DR-DOS 5 on the 32M CF “Hard Drive”. After it installed I re-ran the CDOS XM install routine. When I rebooted it did not ask if I wanted to load Concurrent. I looked at the autoexec.bat file and the same lines are in there that are supposed to ask if I want to load Concurrent but they do not fire. Instead, the Config.sys file asks if I want to load Memmax and then loads DR-DOS. I played around with it and found that I could run the Loadsys file from the command line. So I decided to just add it again to the end of the autoexec.bat file after the DR-DOS stuff loads. It seems to work.

I wonder if CDOS will have any issues with how DR-DOS controls memory. I did get some out of memory errors when I tried to launch the Loadsys file high up in the autoexec.bat file, before the DR-DOS section. But I don’t get any such error messages when I put Loadsys last, or run it by hand from the prompt.

So, as of now, I have this NEC 286 running DR-DOS and Concurrent DOS XM, side by side. Now I need to do more experiments with running both DOS and CP/M programs. Of course, DR-DOS will only run DOS programs, unlike CDOS, which runs both. DR-DOS also does not do multi-tasking like CDOS.

I want to try the GEM system in DR-DOS, with a mouse. DR-DOS also has a version of GEM called ViewMax built in, which is also on my Caldera DR-DOS 7 system.

Other DOS software to try - Norton Commander, First Choice, Alpha Four, PFS:Write, Quatro Pro, a few games.

CP/M software - Wordstar, dBASE II, SuperCalc, some games.

—--

12/19/22

I scrounged through my drawer for some ISA cards to see what I had that I might put in this NEC 286. I found an Aztech Sound Blaster 2.0 card and a DTC Hard drive/CD-ROM controller. I put the sound card in first and I downloaded a driver package from an IBM site. This package included a lot of Windows stuff that I didn’t need. After I got the drivers for DOS installed, which is really just setting up the autoexec.bat file, I went through the software that was installed in the SB directory and removed everything I didn’t need. I am running low on hard drive space so no need to have Windows drivers and software I will never use. [After I changed to a 1GB CF card I reinstalled all the software].

I played with some of the Sound Blaster software and confirmed the sound was working. It works.

Then I scrounged around in the storage room for a CD-ROM I could use and installed the DTK IDE interface card and connected the CD-ROM and power to test it. I downloaded a driver for the CD-ROM and set up the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files to test the CD-ROM. It turned out that my normal routine of using MSCDEX.EXE would not work with DR-DOS and CDOS. I did a little reading and found out that DR-DOS 7 had a CD-ROM driver built in named NWCDEX.EXE. I logged in to my KLH 286 that was running DR-DOS 7 and copied the NWCDEX.EXE file to a floppy and then moved it over to this NEC with DR-DOS 5. Then I edited the autoexec.bat to change to the NWCDEX.EXE driver and it worked in DR-DOS. It does not work in CDOS so I will have to troubleshoot how to set up the configuration files so I can continue to use CDOS without trouble. CDOS does work fine when I rem out the CD-ROM drivers. Maybe there are some drivers for CDOS I can use.

After I got the CD-ROM drive working I tested reading and writing from a CD-ROM that has some DOS games. It worked fine. I added a few games to the hard drive and tested the sound. Everything is working. So, I now have Sound Blaster sound and a CD-ROM drive. I removed the second 3.5” drive, the B: drive. I set the CD as the D: drive. So my drives are now A:, C: and D:. This all works fine in DR-DOS. I edited the config files and disabled the CD-ROM for normal use. I can enable the CD when I want to use it to add files using DR-DOS. Otherwise I don’t need it loading.

All that is left is to read up on if CDOS XM supports CD-ROM players and how to set it up. I also need to read up memory management. This computer has 2GB of Extended memory and I need to learn how to use it with both CDOS and DR-DOS. Although, I am not sure CDOS will use it - I think CDOS only uses Expanded Memory Cards. I need to read up on it.

02/19/23

I decided I wanted to use the 32MB CF card on the Tandy 1000HD instead of a 1GB CF card. DOS 3.3 only supports 32MB partitions and it was not convenient to partition the 1GB CF card into 26 partitions of only 32MB each. So, I moved the 32MB CF card to the 1000HD and I had to redo this setup on this NEC 286 for DR-DOS and CDOS XM. 

I was able to get DR-DOS installed to the new 1GB CF card but CDOS XM would not work on anything beyond 32MB. So, my swapping the 32MB CF over to the 1000HD left me without CDOS XM on this NEC machine. I setup DR-DOS with a 32MB partition and two Logical partitions of about 480MB each. DR-DOS works with this setup but not CDOS. For now, until I get another smaller 32MB CF card I do not have CDOS XM running on this machine. The floppy also will not boot if I have anything larger than 32MB for the CF card, so I can’t use a floppy setup either unless I first remove the CF card. I will try to get another 32MB card.

I could go ahead and try formatting the new 1GB CF card into several 32MB partitions, like I did with DOS 3.3 on the 1000HD. That may allow me to use CDOS on this CF card.

Okay, I went ahead and repartitioned to 32MB sizes only. I made two Logical partitions of 32MB so that I had the same number of drives, C:, D:, and E:. I copied CDOS back over to the CF Card and now it works again. CDOS recognizes the same drive letters as DR-DOS (except the Z: drive that I set on the CD-ROM). So, I guess I will stay with this setup because I want to have CDOS XM running on this machine. It is a pain to have so many partitions but I can manage it. I will create a text file in the root directory to help me remember what drive letters to use.

After some trial and error I found that CDOS only uses the partitions up to the K: drive. (DR-DOS used up to the P: drive. Neither OS used all the partitions up to Y:) So, I removed all the partitions above the K: drive. This leaves the amount of space at 288MB, with drives C: thru K:.

There is still one quirk when running the DR-DOS CD-ROM driver. If I set up the config.sys and autoexec.bat files to include the CD-ROM driver then CDOS gives me an error at startup. It says there is insufficient memory to run the HDMENU.DAT and one of the other sessions shows that the CD-ROM driver is running. But if I move over to that session using the Control-# key binding the CD-ROM driver goes away on its own. Once the CD-ROM driver is gone I can launch the HDMENU.DAT and it works just fine. If I rem out the CD-ROM driver lines then CDOS works normally. There is something about the CD-ROM driver that bangs into CDOS at launch. But it seems to be a temporary glitch and I can work around it.

So, now I am back to running both DR-DOS 5.0 and Concurrent DOS XM 6.

I have played around with CDOS a little. It seems to me that the only reason to have CDOS is if you had a large number of CP/M programs and data and needed to try to use the CP/M programs while you transitioned to DOS. Or, if you needed multiple users all using a terminal program. CDOS often won’t run a program due to memory issues. DR-DOS does not have this problem with memory. I will go ahead and keep CDOS on here for now as an experiment. But I may decide to go only with DR-DOS in the future. That will allow me to use the entire space on the CF card.

Maybe I can figure out how to use the 2MB of Extended Memory in this computer as Expanded Memory?

—--

02-26-2023

I used my second 1GB CF card to install DOS 5.0 and Win 3.1. It works with the full 1GB partitioned as one drive (unlike CDOS and DR-DOS 5). This morning I re-installed the Sound Blaster files to this CF card (I had previously trimmed these files due to low hard drive space) and installed the CD Audio driver. I began to experiment with playing an audio CD.

I put in a Little River Band CD and tried to play it using a windows program. I could not find any audio CD software. I looked it up on the internet and I learned that the CD Audio device is found on a sub-menu of the Media Player. After starting up Media Player you pull down the Device menu and select CD-Audio. That started the CD player but I could not hear anything. I could see it was playing but there was silence. I plugged in a pair of headphones and the audio was playing fine through the headphones. So, something was not connected properly. I assume it is a missing audio cable from the CD-ROM to the sound card.

Before I opened up the case to troubleshoot the internal audio cable I wanted to find out if I could get sound out of the sound card if I plugged an audio patch into the Line In port on the sound card. First I tried connecting an RCA patch cord to the CD card outputs on the back to the computer and into the Line In on the sound card. This did not work. I plugged this same cable to my stereo and got nothing. So, the RCA outputs from the CD-ROM card on the back of the computer are not active. So, I tried plugging a patch cord from the front of the CD-ROM directly into the stereo. That worked, as expected. Next I had to find a patch cord that had a male 3.5mm stereo connector on each end. I could not find one but I did find a splitter with two male connectors. I plugged one of these plugs into the Line In and the other into my extension cable that was plugged into the front panel of the CD-ROM. It works! I had sound coming out of the sound card through the desktop speakers.

So, now I have verified that I can play audio CD’s through the sound card. But I need to figure out if I can get the audio into the sound card internally instead of using the external patch cords.

OK, I opened the case and looked at the CD-ROM and the sound card, and the CD-ROM interface card that has the two RCA outputs. Sure enough, there is a Audio output on the CD-ROM that was not connected to either the sound card or the interface card. I scrounged for a matching cable that I could use between the CD-ROM drive and the sound card. I did not have an exact match. But I did connect a cable to the CD-ROM that would reach to the sound card. Then I jerry-rigged the connector onto the pins on the sound card. It worked. Sound now goes through the sound card without having to use the external Line In. But the connection is not perfect, it could come loose if the case is wiggled around too much. But it is working for now. If I can’t find the right cable I may have to use some tape or something to keep it from popping loose.

I did not connect the interface card so the RCA connectors on the back are still dead.

Next, I need to look for software for Windows 3.1 that is an audio CD player.

It seems there is not a lot of software available for CD-Audio on Windows 3.1. This did not become fashionable until Windows 95. But there are a few to try. I would like to find one that can control the sound volume.

I found a program called CDPlayer v3.4. It is a shareware program and provides both a Windows program and a DOS program. It also includes a Volume and Balance slider pop-up. But no mute button. It works. Most other programs I found require more stuff to be added to Windows 3.1 and were intended for at least 386 or 486 machines. This program seems to run fine on this 286 and is a little better than the built-in Media Player option.

I was able to play a CD and run PFS:First Choice at the same time. Not bad, for an old 286.

When I went to quit Windows I just exited the CDPlayer and Closed the Program Manager. But the CD kept playing! Apparently this is using the DOS TSR. I’ll have to read the manual! Okay, it’s not the TSR program it is normal operation. The CD continues to play according to whatever “mode” was set. The standard mode is to play the entire disc from wherever you started it. So, when you “exit” the program it continues to play until the end of the disc (or mode). To stop the disc and quite just start the program again and either press Stop or Eject. Just exiting does not automatically stop the playback.

I was able to use both the Windows and the DOS program. They both work the same way. I can play a CD while doing other DOS things, such as running Laplink or First Choice, etc.

—--

3/9/23

For the past few days I’ve been exploring interesting software titles that might work on this machine in either DOS or Windows. I put together a list on my Google Drive.

One of the first things I tried was a copy of System Commander. I had tried to use my System Commander Deluxe version 4 when I was looking into managing both DR-DOS and MS-DOS. But for some reason that version of the program refused to run on this machine. It said it had an 8088 processor and that at least a 286 was required. As far as I could tell this machine has an Intel 80286. But maybe it’s an NEC brand, like with the V20 and V40 in some of my XT clones. At any rate, System Commander would not run. So I moved on and started my reviews of some other software.

I was able to get Win286 installed in a separate directory and I managed to run Win286 without any ill effects on the Windows 3.1 setup already installed. But as I was scanning through some software titles I came across System Commander in a couple of earlier versions. I wondered if maybe one of these earlier versions would run on an 8088 and allow me to get past the error I was getting with Version 4. So, I tried it. It worked! I had to find a serial number on the internet before I could successfully install version 2.6. (I had tried version 2.7 but could not find a serial number). Once I got System Commander 2.6 working I reviewed how to set up multiple DOS instances by reading through my Version 4 manual. I figured it would work similarly in version 2.6, it did. As of now I have three separate instances of DOS and Windows launching from System Commander - plain DOS 5.0, DOS 5.0 with Win286, and DOS 5.0 with Windows 3.1. 

I decided to try some Windows 2.x software first. I had never run any Windows 2.x software before and was curious. I downloaded and installed the following Win 2.x software:

MicroSoft Word 1.0 - Word Processor

MicroSoft Excel 2.0 - Spreadsheet

Omnis Quartz 1.13 - Database

Aldus Pagemaker - Desktop Publisher

Corel Draw 1.10 - Drawing Program

Micrografx Designer 2.0 - Vector graphics

Pubtech File Organizer 2.11 - MAC-like shell for Win 2.x

All of these programs run when launched from Win 286. I do seem to be having some issues managing memory with Win286 but so far everything is running. Win286 works a little differently than DOS 5.0 and the files from Win286 are not always compatible with the DOS 5.0 files. But it seems to work, even if I don’t yet understand exactly how to set up HIMEM.SYS and SMARTDRIVE.

I wondered if any of these Win 2.x programs would run in Win 3.1. I tried running each one from Windows 3.1 and all but one gave me an error message. MS Word 1.0 runs, all the rest did not.

While setting up the autoexec.bat file for Win286 I wondered if there was a way to set the computer to Turbo mode from the batch file. That way I would not have to remember to use the key binding of Ctrl- Alt- - before launching windows from the command line. If there was a command I could use I could do it all automatically from the autoexec.bat file. I looked around the internet and did not find much. But I did read a document from a Tandy computer where they mentioned a command that would work to set turbo mode. I had just found the original DOS diskette for this NEC computer so I put it in the A: drive and looked around. I found a program on that disk named TURBO.EXE. I ran it and it came back with help on how to enter the commands to set the turbo mode. The commands were “TURBO +” for High and “TURBO -” for Low. This was exactly what I was looking for. This was a DOS 3.3 disk but I copied the file to my DOS 5.0 directory and ran it from there. It worked!

So, with this little utility now installed in my DOS 5.0 sub-directory I was able to automatically set the turbo mode to HIGH in the autoexec.bat file, just before launching the WIN command. Then I rebooted. When the autoexec.bat file ran I saw the Turbo light come on and the computer beeped. Then Win286 came on screen. It works! I then did the same thing for the DOS with Win 3.1 instance.

Now, on to trying some more software titles on my list.