tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-992458817228817902024-03-08T01:30:02.356-08:00Sean's Old ComputersSean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-30425091882371072032022-07-15T07:17:00.002-07:002022-07-15T07:17:33.101-07:00<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">486 VLB upgrade to MicroLab Case</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b8723148-7fff-a457-e3ba-32fd9df5bf46"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was unsuccessful with the MicroLab 286 motherboard. But I tested putting this 486 VLB motherboard in the MicroLab case and it will fit. So, I am going to put this 486 in the MicroLab case.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I got this 486 at PT Surplus. It came in a full tower, 25” high. I don’t need such a big case so I am going to clean it up and put it in the smaller MicroLab desktop case. This motherboard is a VLB type and has five ISA slots and three VLB slots. It came with several cards, but no sound card. The cards are a CD-ROM interface, Modem, I/O card, Floppy and Hard Drive controller (VLB) and a video card (VLB). There are two IDE hard drives, one CD-ROM, a 3.5” floppy drive and a 5.25” floppy drive.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I removed the motherboard from the case. It is a little dirty but there is not any corrosion. It uses a CR2032 battery. The CPU heat sink and fan are the dirtiest. There are two SIMMS installed and there are two slots open (total of four slots). The keyboard is a 5-pin DIN type.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will take the power supply out and clean it up and use it in the new case. The old MicroLab power supply still works and can be stored for future use. [I may use the MicroLab power supply. They look very much the same but I think the one in the MicroLab case may be better. It is 200 Watts. I did end up using the MicroLab supply. The power supply that came in the large tower case is not working]. The MicroLab case has three external 5.25” bays and one 3.5” external bay. There is room for another hard drive under the power supply. But I think I will stay with one floppy, one hard drive, and one CD-ROM. [I ended up using both floppy drives].</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7/10/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried powering on with the MicroLab power supply and I got mixed results. Once or twice I did get a front power LED and the small fan on the CPU heatsink “bumped” and stalled. I got no screen readout. I decided to try the original power supply that came in the huge tower. That gave me nothing. I then tried the power supply from the VIP 200 286. It worked! The screen came on and the memory counted down but then I got an error saying the keyboard was missing.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought the power supply from the MicroLab 286 was working but now I am not sure. I am going to try it again just to confirm if it does the same thing. I was able to figure out why the keyboard was not working (in line fuse on MB) and I temporarily bypassed the fuse with a jumper wire. I also took out the disk controller card before I booted. I want to try the MicroLab power supply with this configuration before I label it bad.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I swapped in the MicroLab power supply and it worked. It may have been disabled by the bad keyboard fuse. Or maybe it was not firmly connected at the wire connectors. At any rate it seems like the MicroLab power supply will work.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now I need to solder in a fuse for the keyboard on the motherboard. In the meantime I will put in the other cards and drives and see what else is working or not working with this machine.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I put in the drive controller card (VLB Card) and hooked up the 3.5” floppy and the two IDE drives that were in the case. One of the hard drives could not be detected and had a knocking sound. I unplugged it and only had the one HD attached. I can detect a drive in the BIOS and set it to a 520MB drive. But on boot I get a Hard Drive failure and then I hit F1. After hitting F1 I get a boot of MS-DOS 6.22 and it asks for the date and time. The date and time are correct and just hit enter on both. This brings me to a C:\> prompt. When I put in the DIR command all I get is the command.com. VER reports MS-DOS 6.22.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, apparently the hard drive has a MS-DOS 6.22 boot but there is nothing else. There are no DOS or Windows files. (The Windows files are probably on the other drive that is not working?)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why do I get a message saying HD failure but still get a boot to DOS off of the same drive? (See below, I had the wrong drive parameters).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The BIOS shows ram as 32Mb and CPU Type DX4-S at 100Mhz. Two serial ports and one parallel port.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I changed the BIOS to boot first from A: After reboot I got the hard drive fail error (20) and then hit F1. The floppy tries to read the boot disk but it does not read. The floppy drive light is on and the cursor is blinking on screen. But it is not booting. The floppy drive does not sound good. It seems to be spinning but not reading. Maybe try the cleaning diskette? I was able to get a directory when booted in MS-DOS 6.22 and I ran Checkit from this floppy drive. So it is at least working a little. Just not booting.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I connected the 5.25” drive as the B: drive. I was able to read several 1.2M diskettes, and the IBM PC-DOS 3.3 diskette, which I think is a 360k diskette. Then I reset the A: drive to 3.5” 720k and set the boot to “A, C” and rebooted. I got the usual hard disk fail (20) message and this time I got the Floppy disk fail (40) message. I put in a DOS 5.0 boot disk formatted as 720k. Then I hit F1. It failed to recognize the disk and asked to supply another disk. I put in the 1.44M DOS 5.0 boot disk and hit enter. The computer booted from the MS-DOS 6.22 on the hard drive.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now I will try to use the 5.25” floppy to boot, as A:. Reset BIOS to A: as 1.2 and B: as none. Put in a DOS 5.0 boot disk in the 1.2M drive A: and reboot. Hard disk fail (20) but no other error. Hit F1. This time the computer booted from the floppy.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both floppy drives seem to work but I can’t boot off the 3.5”. I can boot off the 5.25”.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe there is a setting on the disk controller card?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(I did notice that the floppy disk loaded faster after I correctly set the hard drive and no longer got the hard disk failure error. Maybe the floppies will work better now?)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And when I used FDISK from the DOS 5.0 boot the program seems to look for a second drive, even though it is not present in the BIOS. The partition table? [I had the second hard drive entered as “user” but no parameters. When I set it to “None” it no longer looked for second drive]. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe try another hard drive and format with DOS 5.0? Not sure yet if I want to destroy these two drives that came in the case yet. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyway, I do seem to have a working computer here. I need to solder a wire for the fuse bypass, or get another fuse. Then I can put it back in the MicroLab case with one or two floppy drive(s), one hard drive, and one CD-ROM. There is no sound card so will have to use the CD-ROM audio only. Also will need a serial mouse.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I ended up soldering in a jumper wire over the fuse for the keyboard. I just need to remember to not unplug or plug in a keyboard with the power on.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I reassembled the motherboard in the case, power supply, VLB video card, VLB Multi i/o and Drive Controller, and the ISA CD-ROM controller. I also attached the wires for the front panel. I power it on and the fans came on and the keyboard lit up but there was no video. I turned it off and removed the ISA CD-ROM card and powered on again. Same thing. I unplugged the front panel wires then rebooted. That worked. I now got the video screen with the familiar hard disk failure (80).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried another hard drive, the one from the NEC 286. It also failed and could not be found with FDISK. I removed the original hard drive and looked up the specs on the Internet. It turns out I had the drive parameters wrong. I used the parameters I found for the drive and rebooted. This time I did not get the hard drive fail error and it booted with MS-DOS 6.22. I rebooted from floppy to DOS 5.0 and then ran FDISK and deleted the partitions and created a new partition. I got a warning from the BIOS but after I confirmed I was able to finish the partition and reboot. After reboot I checked the disk with FDISK again and it looked good this time.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I ran a format on the C: drive. It is running now and there are several recovery messages but it is moving forward, slowly. The message is “Trying to recover allocation unit nnnnn.” Apparently this drive had crashed and there are several sectors needing attention. Hopefully it will finish formatting and then I will install DOS 5.0 onto the hard drive.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The format finished. I reset the 3.5” 1.44M drive as the A: drive and rebooted with the MS-DOS 5.0 diskette. It booted and I installed DOS 5.0 to the hard drive. I rechecked the BIOS and set the floppy drives to A:=1.44M/3.5” and B:=1.2M/5.25” and set to boot A,C. Rebooted and tested all drives. Everything is working. The floppy drives are booting now. Apparently the hard drive settings were affecting the floppy boot. Now that it is correct it is all working. I started Checkit and am running a test on the Hard drive. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next will be to install Windows and a Mouse and the CD-ROM driver. Finally, I need to clean up the faces of the drives. Then I can re-assemble the case enclosure and this machine will be done. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This will be my fourth 486 in my collection - and the highest specs for the processor itself. This is now my “MicroLab 486”, taking the place of the former MicroLab 286.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wonder if this case will be a problem for the 486DX4-100 and heat. The original tower case had a lot more room. Plus the fan on the heatsink seems to not spin sometimes. I may have to add a cooling fan, or try another case. Let’s see how this goes.</span></p><br /><br /></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-14446938391844606812022-07-15T07:16:00.004-07:002022-07-15T07:16:58.425-07:00<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">VIP 200 - 286</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-9c313b4a-7fff-1862-abee-a848f37dee3d"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I purchased this computer for my parents when they were living in Seattle and I was visiting them, while I was now living in upstate NY. I found the best deal I could using Computer Shopper and had the stuff shipped directly to their address. When I arrived for my visit I set it all up for them and showed them how to use it. This was their first PC at home. I would call in using Carbon Copy and help them learn how to use DOS and software programs like WordStar. At home I was using the AST Premium 486-33 that was given to me by a member of the Hudson Valley Computer User’s Group. At that time I was using DOS only and a dial-up modem.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I ordered this computer with a VGA White screen and standard VGA 8-bit ISA interface card. It also came with parallel and serial ports. It has a standard AT keyboard and connects with the built in 5-pin DIN keyboard connector off the motherboard and extended to the front with an interior extension cable [now has a broken wire. Now just plugging keyboard into back port]. There is a PC speaker but no sound card. It included a 3.5” floppy disk drive. I can’t remember if we added a hard drive on the order or not. Probably. I don’t remember setting up a dual floppy system. I think it was DOS 5.0 on an IDE hard drive. It probably used an ISA multi-I/O card for the floppy, HD, and serial and parallel ports. I set up a modem also.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After my parents no longer used this computer I put this computer in storage, for quite awhile. At some point after I started getting interested in retro computers I got it out and I noticed that the barrel battery was leaking. I removed everything from the case and then removed the battery and cleaned it up with vinegar and isopropyl alcohol. It has been disassembled ever since and the cards and drives have all been used elsewhere. I don’t have an exact record of what cards and drives were in this machine.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recently, while trying to clean up the MicroLab 286 I also got out this VIP motherboard and noticed it still had some green residue and needed more cleaning. I have been cleaning it for a few days along with the MB from the MicroLab. After I failed to get the MicroLab MB working I decided to try powering up this VIP MB to see if it still worked. It does! I am still cleaning it but it does power on and I can get into the BIOS. After this test I decided to switch from the MicroLab 286 to this VIP 286. I am now cleaning up the case and gathering the cards and drives I will need to put it back together. I am using the 3.5” floppy and 3.5” IDE HD from the MicroLab along with the drive controller card and a separate serial and parallel card. The VGA card was in my drawer. It may be the very VGA card that was in this computer, I don’t know. But it is my last ISA VGA card I have available. (It was the VGA card from the PC Partner 386sx. I have since put it back in that computer. But I do have a couple CGA cards).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I took the power supply out of the case and blew out the dust. Then I cleaned up some corrosion on the case itself. Next is to replace the power supply in the case and test it for proper voltage. At the same time I continue to clean the motherboard. I have made progress in removing the green by laying some cotton swabs soaked in vinegar and then brushing with a stiff bristle toothbrush. It is getting better. After it is clean I will finish reassembling the motherboard, cards, and drives.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been using the VGA white screen on the IBM XT-286 but now that I have this VIP 286 going back together I will trade it back to this computer and put the IBM VGA color monitor on the XT-286. (Don’t have the VGA card available. Will use the VGA White on the NEC 286 - Update: I put the VGA card back in the VIP 200 and am ready to use the original VGA White screen with this VIP computer).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I finished cleaning the motherboard and then I reassembled the case, power supply, and the motherboard and VGA card. I powered it up and I do get a screen report and am able to get into the CMOS Setup. But I cannot get a floppy drive to be recognized.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I used the floppy controller from the MicroLab 286 but I can’t get the floppy to work. I tried moving the card to different ISA ports. No difference. I have a Winbond Multi-I/O card and I tried that. I still can’t get the floppy to boot. But I did once get the light on the floppy to come on. So, far I am getting mostly CMOS errors about the floppy controller failing.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wonder if I will get better results if I first install a backup battery? I need to get a battery tray and attach it to the header on the motherboard and then set it up to use the external battery. I am out of those AA battery trays so I need to order some more. Maybe I have one in another computer I can use temporarily. If after I use the external CMOS battery the floppy controller still fails I will need to look for another controller card. It’s a little odd that both of these controller cards are bad but they are old, so it could be that they are both bad.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found a four-AA battery tray in one of my drawers. I will try to find a patch cord that will fit the header on the motherboard.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I attached the CMOS external battery. I got a message that said the CMOS battery was low. But after a reboot I no longer get the CMOS battery error. I only found some used AA batteries. Maybe if I put in fresh new batteries it will work better. Anyway, the CMOS battery error is not coming on screen. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve been getting one long beep followed by three shorter beeps. The RAM check stops at 512k and then the beeps as noted and then continues to count to 768k. Then the error message includes a CMOS Memory mismatch. I changed the pins on the motherboard to set it to only 512k (JP7 Open, JP8 Closed, JP9 Closed). Now when the memory is tested it stops at 512k and there are no longer any beeps. The CMOS memory error happened one more time but then on reboot it no longer shows the CMOS memory mismatch error. I do still get the floppy controller failure.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think the ram chips in Bank 1 are bad. The chips in Bank 0 seem to be ok. There are four chips in each bank, for 512k each. So, for now I only have 512k, but at least no memory errors. I will continue to troubleshoot the floppy controller.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I re-tried the Winbond card in each ISA slot. It failed in each slot. I then re-inserted the card from the MicroLab 286 and this time I got the drive light to come on. It attempted to read from the drive but failed to read both a 1.44 and a 720k DOS 5.0 boot disk. The BIOS is set to a 1.44 drive. Let’s try setting it to a 720k drive. No change.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried about 6 or 7 3.5” drives and set to both 1.44 and 720k. No disks will read. I do get slightly different errors on screen depending on the disk. DR-DOS seems to be the most different. I also tried two 5.25 drives, in both 1.2 and 360k. No reads.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe I need to set some pins on the controller? All nine drives are bad?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Note: while setting up the NEC Powermate 286 I installed the 3.5” floppy from the MicroLab 286 and it working fine. So, I think it is bad controllers.]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The card has following identifiers:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Label: FCC ID: H9NCI-90</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Label: Unique Q1 92</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On board: UN - 1051 Rev E</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hong Kong</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">50/91</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chip: Acer M5105 A3E 9204 TS6 A20409</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried hooking up the IDE drive from the MicroLab. It hangs at boot, no screen. If I disconnect it I get the boot screen back. But the floppy will not read a disk. I tried adjusting JP8 and JP10 but there is no difference. When connected the HD light comes on but it will not continue to boot.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wonder if I will have the same results with these drives and the controller in the Leading Edge Model D? May not work if slots are 8-bit only. I was not able to test the controller on the Model D. It has an integrated floppy controller and I don’t know how to disable it. I did test the 5.25” 1.2 drives and I cannot get them to boot in the Model D either.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ok, I’ll put this VIP 200 aside for a while. I need to get another floppy controller card that I know is working. Then I need to test the RAM.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have an unused Mono graphics adapter in my XT/286. I can either move that Mono adapter to this VIP 286 or use it in the XT/286 and take the VGA out and put it in this VIP. That would allow me to put the VGA White on this computer.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I ended up grabbing an Orchid VGA card from the AT&T Pentium MMX and putting it in the PC Partner 386. I took the VGA card that was in the PC Partner and put it in this VIP machine.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-20279019739508420892022-07-15T07:16:00.001-07:002022-07-15T07:16:15.496-07:00<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">MicroLab 286</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-162d0dd5-7fff-5b81-983e-bc377280180f"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a time I was not able to find out anything about this MicroLab. I thought it was a white box from a local computer shop, like some mom&pop store that serviced local small businesses. But I recently found out that this was a clone brand that was competing with the likes of NEC and Gateway for cheap business computers of the time, about 1989.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This computer was sold by PAN-UNITED CORP. in Edison, NJ. They were basically resellers, like Leading Edge, and the manufacturer was some source in Taiwan. I have not been able to find the actual manufacturer of the motherboard. The label on one of the ISA slots is from March 23, 1990. There were a few articles in PC Magazine in 1989 comparing these machines to other 286 machines.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think I got this machine at the same time as the NEC Powermate. It may have come from the batch of stuff I got from an old business in Kingston along with some PS/2’s and some printers. I think I powered it up once and the fans did come on so I thought maybe it would work but I set it aside and it has set along with the NEC Powermate for a few years.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I started to work on this machine a couple of weeks ago. I had previously had some success with my old AST 486-33 and the Leading Edge Model D 8088 clone. I had been reading about some 286 projects on VCFED so I decided I would finally start work on this machine. But, unfortunately, I screwed up a few years ago and I did not notice that there was a barrel battery on the motherboard and I failed to remove it. The battery has leaked and there is a lot of corrosion.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I disassembled the drives, cards, connectors and power supply. I cleaned up and tested the power supply and it is working. I removed the motherboard and cleaned the case. Now I will clean the motherboard before I try to reassemble and power up.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I removed the battery and cleaned up the corrosion. It took a lot longer than some other motherboards I have cleaned. The green residue took a long time to remove. And I think there is still some residue in the keyboard connector and a couple of the ISA slots. I cleaned it until the green was gone from the traces and then I tried to power it on.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I attached the power supply, a VGA card and my IBM VGA monitor, and my IBM Model M keyboard. I powered it on - the power supply fan is working but the motherboard is not posting. Nothing. No beeps (note - no beeper on MB and speaker not connected) and no report to video. Is this motherboard dead? Maybe. There was a lot more corrosion than I have worked with before. This board may be beyond my ability to repair.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The motherboard is not completely dead. I attached a speaker to the board and powered it on again. There is a constant three-beep. Still no video but the three-beep continues until I power down. I was hoping for more of a definitive beep code. But at least we’re getting something so I know the board is at least responding to something. I need to try and figure out what the three-beep means and what type of board this is. Maybe I can get some help on VCFED.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The computer came with one 3.5” floppy, one 5.25” floppy, and an IDE 3.5” hard drive. There was no floppy or IDE controller on the motherboard. The drives were connected to an ISA controller card. When I took it apart I noticed that the floppy cables were missing. The IDE cable was connected to the hard drive. There was no video card installed when I started taking this apart for cleaning. I may have removed the video card previously, I can’t remember. The keyboard port is the standard AT 5-pin din connector. I did not get any keyboard or monitor with this computer, just the CPU box.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, now I have to decide what I am going to do with this machine. When I cleaned up the Leading Edge Model D I thought that maybe I could use the hard drive from this MicoLab in that machine if this machine did not work. Well, it is not working. So, maybe I will do that and use the drives on the Leading Edge Model D.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also found an unused 486 motherboard in my stack of stuff. I do not know where it came from. But it is not as corroded as the MicroLab 286 MB and I may decide to clean it up and put it in the MicroLab case. The format of the 486 motherboard is very close to the non-working 286 and should fit the case. I think I will at least try to power it up like I did with the 286 and see if it is viable before I decide what to do.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also found an old 286 motherboard that was stacked with the 486 motherboard. This 286 board was removed from the old VIP computer that I had originally bought for my folks while they were still in Seattle. I purchased this VIP direct from an add in Computer Shopper and got a VGA white monitor along with it. It has since been disassembled and is missing all the drives and video card. The case remains along with the power supply. The battery was leaking so I removed the battery, a long time ago, and attempted to clean it up. I have not attempted to power it up since. There was still some green residue so I was attempting to clean it again while I was working on this MicroLab motherboard.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I decided to try and power it up while I had everything still setup from the tests with the MicroLab motherboard. It works! There is still some green residue but the motherboard is working. I will continue to try and clean this board. Maybe I will put that VIP machine back together and use the drives from this MicroLab in that VIP computer. The VIP case is a mini-tower and I do not have any other mini-towers with any 286/386/486 machines. The next mini-tower I have is for the AT&T Pentium 200MMX. So, it might be cool to use the VIP mini-tower for a 286 and use the MicroLab case for something else, like the 486?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before breaking down I hooked up the 486 motherboard and powered it on. I had attached the same speaker that I attached to the previous 286 board. But when I turned it on I got no beeps. And no video. When I turned it off I saw a red led on the board blink. It lit up and then went off again. But otherwise no response from the board. It looks like I have some work to do with this board. But it is well identified and I may be able to find some manuals for it. But at least for now this board will not work to resurrect the MicroLab computer. I may go ahead and put it in the case for storage though.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, it seems that this MicroLab is a bust and I will need to work on the VIP 286 instead. Time to break down the work area and switch over to the VIP.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">07/04/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was beginning to clean up a different 486 that I got at the surplus, it is in a full tower 25” high. I wondered if the motherboard would fit in another case. I placed it in this MicroLab case and it will fit. So, I am going to upgrade this case to the 486 motherboard. See the other document for more on cleaning up the 486.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7/10/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This MicroLab 286 has been replaced and is now the “MicroLab 486”.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-2001212698705010592022-05-01T10:26:00.001-07:002022-05-01T10:26:11.599-07:00CP/M-86 for IBM PC/XT<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">CP/M-86 for IBM PC/XT</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-690346c9-7fff-5634-6e00-2c24863ff90b"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lets try the 360K disk again, but this time let’s format it to 320K. It didn’t boot.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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”.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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: </span><a href="http://www.cpm.z80.de/binary.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.cpm.z80.de/binary.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) 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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I completed both the 1.44M and 720K disks. Now let’s try booting the 1.44M on the KLH-195.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That worked! I got the KLH-195 AT booted with the CP/M 86 disk. Next try the VX88.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes! That works also. The VX88 is now running CP/M-86 with two floppies.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also, I have to figure out how to get CP/M software to load from floppy, or maybe a hard disk directory.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I did find this on a web page:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 10pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-----</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It would also be very helpful if you could install a 360k 5.25-inch</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">disk drive in your computer. Don't use your 1.2 meg drive; CP/M-86</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">doesn't know about such things.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the meantime, you can use your 3.5-inch floppy drive as a "360k"</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">drive by doing this:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Put a write-protect tab (or some black electrical tape) over</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the "high density" hole in a 1.44 meg floppy disk.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Boot CP/M-86 from the hard disk. Then use DSKMAINT.CMD to</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> format that floppy disk (as "double-sided").</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - You'll now have a floppy disk with a standard CP/M-86 314k</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> format on it.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can then use this floppy as if it were a true CP/M-86 5.25-inch</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">disk. 22DISK and other DOS-to-CP/M file transfer utilities should</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">recognize it as an IBM CP/M-86 disk.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">its better to take a 720 kb Disk because of better magnetic</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">characteristics</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(the thickness of the magnetic layer is different and this can cause</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">problems!!)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-----</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have downloaded 22DISK and will give this a try.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">144PAT2.CMD - the driver</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">144PREP2.CMD - prepares diskettes as higher capacity disks (720, 1.2, 1.44)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do I copy a file from drive A: to drive A:?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PIP a:=b:*.cmd</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OK, I got the files moved over to the boot drive. Now, can I figure out how to create 144FEAT disks?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(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)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">144PREP2 B: 1V</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This tells 144PREP2 to use the B: drive, use 1.2M format, and display the diagnostic messages.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">144PREP2 B: 7V</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, to get some programs on these disks. A word processor and a spreadsheet? A game?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">veplus86.zip - VEDIT Plus 2.03/2.33 for CP/M-86</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Editor, comes with a PC version already pre-configured.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Copied to DOS in C:\Holdtank. Unzip files to \Temp. Select files to fit 320K disk.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Used 22DISK to copy files to 5.25” 320K floppy.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebooted to CP/M-86</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use PIP to move files from 320K disk to 1.44M disk for temporary storage.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use PIP to move files to a 1.2M floppy for daily use. Copies to 720K for VX88.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-----</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have copied and tried the following programs:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Word Processors/Editors:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VPlus - Vedit Plus, Word Processor</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ted - Editor</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write - quick note taker, not a full editor</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spreadhseet:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MicroCalc - very small spreadsheet, it works but it is small and simple</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Database:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dbase II - full database program</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Utilities:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">XDIR - gives alphabetically sorted directory and file sizes, and space available on disk</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SD - same as XDIR</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VFILER - allows viewing and marking files in a directory, copy & delete, etc.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Several ARC/SQUEEZE/LBR archive utilities</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Games:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gulper - Pac-Man type game</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pong2 - Pong type game</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tetris3 - Tetris type game</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tic - 1-player Tic-Tac-Toe</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TicTac - 2-player Tic-Tac-Toe</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Worm - Tron type game</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snake - avoid the snake, gobble up coins, escape the room</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hangman - text based, Hangman game</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gunner - text based, enter angle for gun to hit target</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blackjack - text based, 21/Blackjack</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-----</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Haven’t tried printer yet.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Haven’t tried terminal/serial port communication yet</span></p><div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-59704901534202971722022-05-01T09:42:00.001-07:002022-05-01T09:42:12.599-07:00Old Timer Sharing<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Old Timer Sharing</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-10189e91-7fff-1a97-2962-c685e80337da"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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”.</span></p><br /><br /></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-58277860398515882992022-05-01T09:40:00.003-07:002022-05-01T09:40:31.298-07:00Tandy 1000HD<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tandy 1000HD</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a2291ce2-7fff-963e-dc78-2133a33ad808"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3/12/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">03/13/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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. </span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-74508214931328149772022-05-01T09:39:00.001-07:002023-09-27T09:59:15.576-07:00NEC Powermate 286 Plus<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">NEC Powermate 286 Plus</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-32100175-7fff-30a8-1b13-2d1e8a97080d"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">03/15/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></p><br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-c3067181-7fff-2c07-c507-05c43e3ce220"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">07/02/2022</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The motherboard has some markings:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">NEC-16T Made in Japan</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">G8EUL B2_</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">136-456295-B-02</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Chip: N80286-12 Intel 1985 L0031180</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Chip: VLSI 8944EV 170955 VL16C451-QC</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It would help if I could find a manual for the computer.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">To finish troubleshooting I need to first get a new controller that is known to work.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I tested a game to verify the VGA color screen. House of Cards works fine from floppy, in EGA graphics.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">11/13/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">12-17-22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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”. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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].</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">12/18/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Booted the KLH to CP/M-86.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Inserted a previously formatted 314k 5.25” disk in drive B:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Copied the CP/M program files from A: to B: using PIP.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Shut down and rebooted to DR-DOS 7.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Made sure there were no files in C:\TEMP.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Started 22DSK with CMENU.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Set CP/M drive to B:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Copied CP/M files to DOS, to C:\TEMP</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Quit 22DSK to DOS.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Put regular DOS disk in A:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Copied all files from C:\TEMP to A:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Removed disk from A: and moved it to the A: drive of this NEC running CDOS XM.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Made a new directory on the hard drive. Changed to the new directory.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Copied all files on A: to new directory on hard drive.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Ran CP/M programs by typing the name of the .CMD program at prompt. (i.e. WRITE)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">12/18/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Other DOS software to try - Norton Commander, First Choice, Alpha Four, PFS:Write, Quatro Pro, a few games.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">CP/M software - Wordstar, dBASE II, SuperCalc, some games.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">12/19/22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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].</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I played with some of the Sound Blaster software and confirmed the sound was working. It works.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">02/19/23</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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:.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">So, now I am back to running both DR-DOS 5.0 and Concurrent DOS XM 6.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Maybe I can figure out how to use the 2MB of Extended Memory in this computer as Expanded Memory?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">02-26-2023</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I did not connect the interface card so the RCA connectors on the back are still dead.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Next, I need to look for software for Windows 3.1 that is an audio CD player.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I was able to play a CD and run PFS:First Choice at the same time. Not bad, for an old 286.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">3/9/23</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">MicroSoft Word 1.0 - Word Processor</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">MicroSoft Excel 2.0 - Spreadsheet</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Omnis Quartz 1.13 - Database</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Aldus Pagemaker - Desktop Publisher</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Corel Draw 1.10 - Drawing Program</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Micrografx Designer 2.0 - Vector graphics</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Pubtech File Organizer 2.11 - MAC-like shell for Win 2.x</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Now, on to trying some more software titles on my list.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-73016500179765809652022-05-01T09:14:00.003-07:002022-05-01T09:31:58.328-07:00IBM 5162 XT-286<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">IBM 5162 XT-286</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-3f46f9c4-7fff-9c84-4e42-b06d523fcc58"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These are some notes on an IBM XT-286 PC that I have been refurbishing.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I got this PC it had an old MFM hard drive in it and I could not get it to work. I took it out and set this system up with two 5-¼” floppy drives and DOS 3.3. But since it is an XT class machine (I later learned it is an AT) I wanted it set up with a hard disk. I had another PC class machine in my basement that had a Seagate RLL drive and controller in it so I thought I would try to move this over to the XT-286 to see if this could become the hard drive for this old IBM PC.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This old IBM PC also had a multi-I/O card in it and I had to figure out how to disable the hard drive on that controller so that the Seagate controller could be in control of the hard drives. The floppy drives remain on this Multi-I/O controller.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I installed the Seagate controller and the hard drive. At first I got nothing but errors. I tried swapping the card to another ISA slot. Eventually I got the Seagate controller to be recognized and the Seagate BIOS reported to the screen. I ended up installing the card in the slot closest to the power supply.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The hard disk was recognized as drive C by the Seagate BIOS but I could not at first figure out how to format it. I tried using the format routine on the Check-it disk. That didn’t work. I used the IBM AT Setup program and added the first drive to the setup. But I could not get FDISK to recognize the disk.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I did some reading on Google and found out that most MFM/RLL drives from the era of this XT-286 needed to be low-level formatted using the DEBUG routine. I had never done this before so I struggled to understand what needed to be done. Finally, I found the instruction sheet for the Seagate ST11M/ST11R controller, which is the controller I have. Those instructions said the drive came pre-formatted and had the setup program already installed on the disk. Well, that might have been the case when new but this disk was no longer in that same condition. The instructions also included how to use the DEBUG routine to format the drive. So, I read and re-read the instructions and gave it a try. Here’s what I did:</span></p><br /><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Made sure CMOS was set to “No Hard Drive”</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Booted DOS 3.3 diskette</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Started DEBUG (which was found on second DOS floppy)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the “-” prompt I typed: G=C800:5</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Seagate controller routine took over and stepped me through the setup and format process. I entered correct drive parameters and the bad sectors from the disk label.</span></p></li></ol><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the first attempt I got an error message of “Bad Drive !!!”. I rebooted, and this time the Seagate Format routine started on it’s own. I did not need to type Debug. Again, I entered the drive parameters and the bad sectors. The format started again, and again it ended in an error of “Bad Drive !!!” I again rebooted and I ran the format routine once again. This time it finished with success! The low-level format was completed and I was asked to reboot and run FDISK and FORMAT.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I rebooted with the floppy. I ran FDISK and this time FDISK found the drive and I was able to partition it as a single DOS drive. Next, I rebooted and ran FORMAT, using the command:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Format C: /s</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This formatted the hard disk for DOS and added the DOS 3.3 command file to the root partition of the hard disk. I then rebooted again, this time without the floppy disk. The DOS system booted correctly to the C: drive. Success! I now have a hard drive on the XT-286.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To review:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These old PC’s that use MFM/RLL drives require that the drive be low-level formatted on the PC that the hard disk is installed in.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A controller card is installed in the 8-bit ISA slot. I used the slot closest to the power supply but I’m not sure it matters which slot. Make sure to disable any other hard disk controller cards.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use DEBUG to start the formatting routine from the controller card. This is usually done by entering the “G=C800:5” command at the DEBUG prompt. But the address of the controller card could vary. C800 is the default for these old PC’s.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once the low-level format is completed you use FDISK and FORMAT to set the drive up for use with DOS.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Now that I have completed this exercise I think I can try to get the original MFM hard drive working using these same techniques. That drive may still work I just didn’t know how to format it.]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After I had the hard drive working I decided to reset the Multi-I/O card to use only the inputs I needed. This card is used for the floppy, LPT2, COM1, and the Game Port. There was also a second I/O card that I removed because I really didn’t need more than one or two serial and parallel ports.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I struggled to get the jumpers setup correctly since the instructions were rather cryptic. I decided to try different jumper settings and test the card to find out what the settings should be. After a few tries I was able to set up the card to work with one COM port, one additional LPT port (the PC already had one LPT port on the video card next to the Mono port), and the game port and floppy controller. I disabled the hard drive controller.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This PC is now working normally, with the C: drive, the A: 5-¼ 1.2M floppy drive, a serial port, two parallel ports, a game port, and the keyboard and CGA monitor. I have it connected to a 486 computer using Laplink on the COM2 port. It is running IBM DOS 3.3.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-----</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">04/25/20</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The computer has been running fine and I usually just boot from the hard drive and run DOS. But I’ve been playing with CP/M-86 recently and I wanted to see if I could boot CP/M-86 on this computer. It won’t boot from the floppy drive A: - a 1.2M 5-¼ “ drive. I have been able to boot from this disk in the past as indicated in the text above. But now it won’t boot anything from A:. I get two beeps after the memory check and then I can hit F1 to boot. The floppy drive spins and the light comes on but it won’t boot from a floppy. I’ve tried several floppies that I know are bootable.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If I take the floppy disk out and reboot it works from the hard drive.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wonder if I have a CMOS problem. But I can’t figure out how to run the CMOS Setup program without booting the Setup and Diagnostic Disk from floppy. I did run Gsetup from the hard drive and took a look but there does not appear to be any way to change boot parameters.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was thinking maybe I will swap in a 3.5” floppy. But I still have to run setup.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I put in a floppy then power on, after the memory test, I hear two beeps. Then I touch F1 and I hear another beep and the floppy drive is accessed and the light is on, then it times out and I hear another, higher tone beep. The computer hangs and there is a single blinking line in upper left corner. If I hit the enter key I hear another of the higher tone beeps. I cannot continue to boot unless I use Ctrl-Alt-Del or power down. If I take the floppy disk out of the floppy drive, then reboot, then I still get the two beeps, then I hit F1 and hear another beep, then the floppy is accessed and the light comes on, then the hard drive light comes on and the system boots off the hard drive to the C:\> prompt.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read in a service manual that the 5162 supports 3.5” drives but it may not work for booting, supporting only the 5.25” as drive A: and 3.5” as drive B:.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-----</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10/3/21</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I recently acquired a Tandy 1000HD that I would like to use with my only CGA monitor (The Goldstar 1410 Plus). So, I want to put this XT/286 back into Mono mode and use it with a Mono monitor. I have an IBM 5151 monitor and was hopeful that I could get it to work since that would keep it all “IBM”.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I opened the case but I could not remember what the cards were. I could see the CGA card that I had the Goldstar hooked up to. But I wasn’t sure if I had the Mono port I needed. There was a card with a label that said “Beltron” but I could not find any information about it. I read enough on the internet to guess that it was the Mono card, with a built-in Parallel port. It may be a Hercules also? Anyway, I put it back in and hooked up the 5151. The computer booted and the screen came alive, but it was not readable. Just a green blur and no readable text. I also tried this 5153 on the Tandy 1000HD with the same result. (Although the Tandy is set for CGA and I’m not sure this monitor will respond to that}. Anyway, it seems this screen is bad.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hooked up another mono screen, from my Leading Edge PC, and rebooted the XT/286. It worked. But after the boot I noticed that I have the autoexec.bat set to CO80 to support the CGA monitor. I will need to change that. I also noticed that the SW1 switch on the motherboard is set to the rear, which is Mono mode, even though I have been using the CGA monitor. Maybe it doesn’t matter. But I will leave it set to the rear and then change the autoexec.bat to remove the color support.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I put in the Diagnostic and Setup disk and rebooted. I got errors and was asked to Hit F1 to continue. I hit F1 and booted from the floppy. I ran the Setup program and set everything up including setting to Mono. I rebooted and got a Floppy drive error. I ran diagnostics and the program seemed to find everything fine and everything looked ok. I quit the diagnostics and removed the floppy and rebooted. I again got a floppy drive error but I put the DOS 3.3 floppy disk into the drive and hit F1. It booted to DOS. I edited the autoexec.bat file on the hard drive and then took out the DOS floppy and rebooted with Ctrl-Alt-Del. I again got a floppy error but I hit F1 and it booted to the C: drive and this time the video mode is set correctly to Mono.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I shut down and took out the CGA card and then closed up and rebooted. Everything seems to be working fine except I still get the floppy error at startup. When I hit F1 it boots fine. So, I just have to use F1 to boot. It’s probably a missing termination on the floppy. But unlike when I was setting up CP/M-86 it is booting from floppy. This floppy is a 1.2M and it is supported in the IBM BIOS. But maybe it has trouble with 360k diskettes or other low-density formats. I’ll need to experiment more.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, as of today (10/03/21) this is a working system with a Monochrome monitor.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div>-----</span><div><span>5/1/2022</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Not too long ago I again updated the video and monitor on this machine. I put in a VGA card and hooked it up to a VGA White monitor. I wanted to have a progression from the Tandy 1000HD through the Packard Bell 8088 to this XT-286. The Tandy has CGA, Packard Bell is Mono Amber and this XT-286 is VGA Mono White.<br /><br /><br /></span></div>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-76457368626117179042022-05-01T08:59:00.004-07:002022-05-01T09:04:35.175-07:00KLH Model 195 - 286-12<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">KLH Model 195 - 286-12</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e35a0e83-7fff-5ba7-0d73-aec6b7f9680f"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is my DR-DOS system. It is one level up from my IBM XT-286. It is an AT-clone and I set it up with an old IDE hard drive and two floppies, one 5-¼ 1.2Mb and one 3-½ 1.44Mb. It has 1 MB of RAM. I installed a 3COM Ethernet card and a sound card.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I installed Caldera DR-DOS 7.03 and I run Norton Commander. I have it connected to a LPT printer and a serial modem. I also setup a serial mouse using CuteMouse. It also has a LapLink connection.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do not run Windows on this machine. DOS only. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do run some GEM based software such as Artline and KeyPublisher </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(removed due to space constraints, see below). DOS programs are Alpha Four, WordStar, Quatro-Pro, and PFS:First Choice..</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Web browser</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been able to get on the web using DosLynx. Here’s what I did to get it to work:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I Installed the 3COM packet driver “3C5X9PD.COM” and I ran the command:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C:\>\pktdvr\3c5x9pd.com 0x60</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I made sure the mtcpcfg.txt file had the correct packet interrupt setup:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">packetint 0x60</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I set the parameter for the mTCP configuration:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C:\>SET MTCPCFG=\mtcp\mtcpcfg.txt</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I ran DHCP to set the IP Address</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C:\>\mtcp\DHCP</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I edited the DosLynx.cfg file to set my_ip=DHCP.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally I ran DOSLYNX.EXE to start up DosLynx and used the File menu to enter the URL of:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.google.com" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.google.com</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It took awhile but eventually it did take me to Google and I entered a search string and it gave me a list. It works!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next I will try “Links”, which I got working on FreeDOS.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> [I did not get Links to work. It is too big and requires DOS Protected Mode. I’ll stay with DOSLynx].</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FTP</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried using the mTCP FTP client to connect to my FileZilla FTP server on my Win7 machine. At first I got the command syntax wrong. I did eventually connect using this command:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C:\>ftp -port 12412 xxx.xx.xx.xxx</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was then asked for my username and password which I correctly entered and then I got the FTP prompt. I attempted to get a directory:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-->DIR</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I got an error saying 421 Could not create socket</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(LS did the same thing.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eventually it timed out and I was disconnected. Now I was back at the dos prompt.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read that I had to play with the port settings for the Passive Mode Settings in FileZilla Server on the Win7 machine. I set the ports to 49152 - 65535. That got me past the ‘Could not create socket’ error. But I still got errors. I turned off the Windows firewall and it works. So it has something to do with port settings and firewall. More reading.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OK, I decided to just turn the Private firewall OFF on the Win7 machine when trying to connect with FTP. I can turn the firewall back on or just ignore it. I don’t think I need to worry about a Private firewall. I will keep the Public firewall on.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have FTP working from this DOS computer to my Win7 FileZilla server. But in order to move a file they must be named with the DOS 8.3 filename convention. Before transferring make sure to rename the file with an 8.3 filename. Also, files are huge. There is no room left on this DOS hard disk. In order to try other programs I have to delete something. I wanted to try “Links” so I removed the “Keypub” and “Artline” programs. I also may need more room. The Links exe file is over 7MB. After removing some programs I now have over 11MB on the drive. The entire hard drive is only 40MB.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I decided to not try to put Links on this computer. The files are too big (and require DMPI extensions) and I already have success with DOSLYNX. [Maybe w3m? No, only compiled for 386+, or Dillo? No, Dillo also requires Protected Mode. Arachne? No, Arachne requires at least a 386.]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note: The Web Browser was not common until about 1994 with NetScape and 1995 with IE. This computer was made in about 1989. So, it is not expected that we would be web browsing, even in text, on this computer. If it was being used in 1995 then it may have been possible but it was still not popular to browse the WWW on DOS. It was more common to browse Gopher servers or use e-mail and FTP. This computer can do all that other internet stuff without the need for a Web Browser. Web Browsers came later. That it can use Lynx to browse the web is pretty amazing, even though it is less than ideal. Lynx was started in 1992 for Gopher and WWW/HTTP was added in 1993. DOSLynx was started in 1994.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Procomm</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have the Procomm program installed. It is for making old-fashioned modem connections to BBS’s. I have tested it with both the modem and a telnet connection, and I also had it connecting to a local BBS server set up on my Win7 machine using the WinXP virtual machine.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will do some more experiments with this program. More later.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sound</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I reviewed some of the sound programs installed. I wanted to see what was working and I wanted to refresh my memory on how to set up sound on DOS. This machine has a card that is compatible with Soundblaster Pro. I have confirmed that the following sound programs work:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DOSMID - works</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DOSMID is a MIDI player. MIDI depends on the “instruments” built into the sound card (or an add-on through a serial or joystick port). MIDI files are small because they only hold the commands for the instruments on the sound module (Sound Card or Add-on).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">GLX - works</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">GLX is a MOD player. MOD is a hybrid of MIDI and WAVE sounds. WAVE sounds are samples of recorded instruments and do not have to be on the sound card but can be loaded from files. MOD files are larger because they contain the “software samples” in addition to the commands.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I removed MultiPlayer (MULTIP directory). It “kinda” works but it is made for better machines, like a 386/486. I removed it because I have the other two sound programs and I can use the space.</span></p><br /><br /></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-23101737937342303692022-05-01T08:47:00.001-07:002022-05-01T08:47:12.120-07:00IBM PS/1 Consultant Model 2133<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Notes on IBM PS/1 Consultant Model 2133</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b4ca073f-7fff-ba98-c8fc-48c95c542c18"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m not sure where I got this machine. Maybe at the landfill/transfer station. Anyway, I have a few IBM machines in my collection and this PS/1 will fit nicely with the rest of my DOS boxes.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I recently was working on setting up an XT-286 Model 5162 and then a KLH 286-12. Both of these 286’s were challenging and I had difficulty setting up a hard disk on both the XT-286 and the 286-12. I also struggled to set up a sound card on the 286-12. But I did eventually figure those machines out and I have DOS 3.3 on the XT-286 and DR-DOS 7.03 and NC on the 286-12. I decided to see what I could set up on the PS/1, which was the next generation, the 386sx-25.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At first I thought I would try DOS 4.01 since this is what came with the machine originally. But while looking for a copy of DOS 4.01 I found some copies of OS/2. I’ve wanted to try out OS/2 for a while now but had so far been unsuccessful in getting it installed. I own a boxed copy of OS/2 for Windows but there seems to be something wrong with the install disk and it won’t properly read and start the install. I put it on the back burner months ago. Well, I downloaded the OS/2 files and created the 20 installation floppies on 3.5” 1.44 disks. I figured this PS/1 would be a good test bed for my first OS/2 since it was genuine IBM equipment and of the same vintage as the PS/2 machines that OS/2 was shipping with.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I attempted to install OS/2 I had to install a floppy drive and a hard drive. I also installed a CD-ROM drive on the same IDE cable as the hard drive, the HD as master and the CD-ROM as the slave. I booted it up and the floppy worked and the hard drive was recognized but not working. I installed DOS 5.0 and used FDISK to fix the hard disk MBR and formatted it for DOS. It worked. I now had the PS/1 working with DOS 5.0 and I also installed Windows 3.1. Next was to try installing OS/2.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The OS/2 install files I downloaded were for version 2.11. This version has DOS and Windows 3.1 built into the OS/2 system. I did not at first understand this and chose to keep DOS and Windows on the hard drive and installed OS/2 on the same hard drive. It took awhile to install and there were 13 floppy disks for the install and about 6 or 7 more disks for optional setups. Eventually I got the OS/2 system to boot and started looking around.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was able to launch some DOS programs I had on the hard drive, such as Norton Commander and Laplink. And I was able to launch the Windows File Manager and the control panel. I did some reading since I was confused about how OS/2 used DOS and Windows. I figured out that OS/2 does not need either DOS or Windows installed since it comes with it’s own copy of DOS and Windows. Keeping my previous DOS and Windows installs was not necessary. I ended up deleting the Windows folder but I kept the DOS folder, for now. I tested the system and it works the same as it did before I deleted the Windows folder. Deleting the unneeded Windows saved me some hard drive space.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next, I tried installing a sound card and the CD-ROM drivers. This turned out to be not so easy. The sound card is supposed to be supported but so far I have not had any sound. And the CD-ROM is not recognized.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found out that in order to use sound and the CD-ROM I needed to install the Multimedia Presentation Manager, which is on two of the diskettes that were not used when I did the original install. So, I put in the first diskette and started MINSTALL.EXE. This ran the installation routine for the sound card and CD-ROM. I chose the SoundBlaster16 and the Creative CD-ROM. The install finished and I rebooted. But all I got was an error message and no sound or CD.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Needed to do more reading. I did try to replace the sound card driver with a Vibra16 version. I did get the board to post to the screen but I got the same error message about the drivers being launched from CONFIG.SYS. And I installed a CD-ROM driver from diskette. But I still don’t have any sound or CD. More reading.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I didn’t log everything but I did manage to get sound and the CD-ROM working. But the CD-ROM is flakey, it doesn’t like to read all discs. It reads some and it does seem to read Audio discs alright. The sound from the CD does not go through the system but I can plug in to the headphone port of the CD player and listen to the audio CD.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no ethernet card on this machine so it is not connected to the LAN. If I want I can use LapLink in DOS through either a parallel or serial cable to the Gateway 2000 4DX2-66.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The video card does not display with enough brightness in DOS, but it is okay in the OS/2 GUI. The screen is a little dark on it’s own but I did notice that the screen is fine when used with the Gateway 2000.</span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-42523142431001869962022-05-01T08:44:00.000-07:002022-05-01T08:44:05.208-07:00Gateway 2000 4DX2-66<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gateway 2000 4DX2-66</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-9d5d3bbe-7fff-b20e-feb0-d3369388818f"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was my parent’s computer and they passed it down to me when they upgraded to a new computer. This is my main 486 machine. It is set up to run DOS 5.0, WFW3.11, and Win95 using System Commander. I also added OS/2 1.3.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was able to get this machine on the internet with a dial-up adapter and I later added an Ethernet card. I can access my LAN from DOS, WWFW3.11 and Win95. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have this machine connected to my DOS PC’s using LapLink cables. If I need to copy a lot of files to one of the old PC’s I can move them here first using the LAN and then use LapLink to move the files to the PC. Laplink serial cable to XT/286 (COM2 to COM2) and same cable shared with Tandy 1000HD (COM2 to COM1). Parallel cable to PB VX88 (LPT1 to LPT1).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also have this computer sharing a screen, keyboard, and mouse with the IBM PS/1 using a KVM switch.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried installing FileZilla on this machine but it would not work. I ended up using WS_FTP and it works fine.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I removed most of the application programs when I reformatted this machine for multi-booting. The Presentation Manager is still setup in WFW3.11 but most of the links are broken and most of the programs no longer exist on the hard drive. Mostly file management applications are left and I use them to move files to other machines (and mostly from DOS and Win95). WFW3.11 was setup for dial-up. Now when I start Windows 3.11 I get a message saying the network is not started. The network works in Win95.</span></p><br /><br /></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-56250367475210234532022-05-01T08:28:00.001-07:002022-05-01T08:28:31.837-07:00FreeDOS on PB 486DX2-66<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">FreeDOS on PB 486DX2-66</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-004203b7-7fff-44ec-5698-da84d51eba07"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been playing with DOS and Windows 3.1 and W9x on some of my Pentium class machines. I decided I wanted to try to setup FreeDOS on some real hardware. I had set up FreeDOS on a VM but this time I wanted to use a real box. I considered using one of the Pentiums or a P-II. I did a search on what equipment to use for FreeDOS and read some sites and watched a video on the newest version of FreeDOS, version 1.3. I decided on using this Packard Bell 486DX2-66.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This computer is my “backup 486”. I never use it but I keep it around in case my main 486, the Gateway 486DX2-66 goes bad. I had installed W95 on it. I took out the hard drive with W95 and put in another hard drive that was previously used with PC-DOS 6. I then proceeded to attempt an install of FreeDOS.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I downloaded the Legacy CD. This computer does not boot from CD so this Legacy CD comes with a floppy image to handle the boot and then start the installation. I initially burned the CD iso to a CDRW but it did not read in the CD-ROM drive so I re-burned the iso to a regular CD-ROM. I also did not have a program to write a floppy image file on my Windows 10 machine. So I downloaded a trial version of a program that could write the floppy image. After I got the floppy image on the boot floppy I put it in the floppy drive and I put the LegacyCD in the CD drive and rebooted the machine. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FreeDOS booted up from the floppy and found the CD and assigned it to drive D: Then it started the installation program and started by asking me my language. Then it asked me for my keyboard and a few other questions and then it started copying files from the CD. It got quite a ways into the installation but then reported an error about not being able to copy a file and offered to either reboot or drop to DOS. I chose to reboot. That started the process all over again. I chose to not save any previous files and started over. It removed all the previous files and started copying files from the CD again. I am waiting to see if I get the same error message again.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It got close to 50% through and I got the same error message. The message was unable to install “archiver\bz2” package. This time I chose No and dropped to DOS. I removed the floppy and rebooted. No operating system. So, the installation has failed. I guess I’ll have to try again with another iso file.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can I use this floppy to fix the MBR and put FreeDOS on the hard drive? Or do I need to download the floppy only version?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I rebooted off the floppy and aborted the install and dropped to DOS. I then ran FDISK and removed the old partition which was formatted in FAT16 and created a new FAT32 partition. Then I went back to DOS and formatted the C: drive. I then restarted the installation and chose NO for preserving the existing OS and then chose to install the basic DOS only, no additional packages. The install is still running and is 90% through. Maybe this will work.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That worked! The installation finished and I dropped back to DOS and then removed the floppy and rebooted. This time the FreeDOS boot menu came up and FreeDOS booted and left me at the DOS prompt. I now have FreeDOS installed. But I don’t have the full installation of packages. I can use the package installer for that later. FreeDOS is like a “distro” and can install packages from a repository. This is better than the old MS-DOS that required a bunch of floppies to install programs. But this machine does not have networking hardware so I may need to use the iso files and burn CD’s to get at the available packages.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4-10-22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I burned the Bonus CD and used FDIMPLES to install some programs, including networking software, even though I only have a dial-up modem and no ethernet card. I ran across a blog where they described how to connect to the LAN using the serial port and a Windows XP computer. This emulates an Ethernet card.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I spent quite a bit of time getting it to work and almost gave up. But I did finally get it working properly. I started by setting up a direct cable connection on the XP computer using the serial port and a laplink cable. I used the XP control panel and allowed a Guest to connect to the XP computer and share the LAN connection. I set it up to use a static address range on the XP machine consisting of only two addresses, one for the incoming connection and one for the server connection on the XP machine. This worked.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next, I had to install a packet driver to emulate an ethernet connection. I found that I had two pieces of software on the FreeDOS computer that would work for this purpose. One was named EPPPD.EXE and one was named LSPPP.EXE I started with the EPPPD program.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First I make sure the XP server is on and ready to receive a connection on the serial/laplink cable. Then I entered the commands on the DOS command line to start the packet driver.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">epppd com2 115200 local</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Epppd then made the connection to the XP machine and reported back that the packet driver was loaded at vector 0x60. On the XP machine I could see that the connection was active.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried using mTCP to run a DHCP command but it failed. I could see the packet driver but I could not understand how to connect to the LAN or Internet. I tried the Arachne browser but it would not connect. Eventually I realized that I needed to setup the configuration for IP addresses of my internet Gateway and DNS. I did manage to use Arachne to setup these addresses. But it still would not connect to an internet location.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I did some more reading and realized I needed to update the Wattcp.cfg file. This file is used by many TCP programs to get the internet configuration. So, I need not only the packet driver but also a config file.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read up on using the LSppp program. It is similar to the epppd program but is the default packet driver for serial connections for FreeDOS so I decided to try it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I formulated a command for LSppp and entered it at the command line</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">lsppp /l /n:2 /B:115200 /S:172.16.0.141 /N:209.18.47.61,209.18.47.62 /V:60</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/l = local, no dialing</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/n:2 = com2</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/B: = baud</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/S: = suggest the IP address</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/N: = nameserver(s)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/V: = vector address</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After running this I got a report of a successful connection. Also, the program created a file named IP-UP.BAT that can be used to set the environment variables for the system.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IP-UP.BAT</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">set myip=172.16.0.141</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">set remip=172.16.0.140</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">set netmask=255.255.0.0</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">set peermru=1500</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">set dns1=172.16.0.150</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I ran the bat file and that set the environment variables. Then I manually edited the Wattcp.cfg file and added these same variables.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After this I tried Arachne again and this time it connected! I could reach the internet!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, I figured out how to both load the ethernet emulator packet driver and update the config files used by the TCP/IP software programs. But Arachne is a GUI based browser and it is very slow. I need to get a text browser working I have tried Links but so far I have not been successful. I will try Lynx next.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was successful with mTCP’s PING and FTP. I also edited the MTCPCFG.TXT file that is being used by mTCP programs for the TCP/IP configuration. It is working. And it is fast enough when in text only.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now I am going back to FDIMPLES and installing some more network programs to see if I can get more to work, especially a text based browser like Lynx.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was able to get Dillo to work. But Lynx is like Links and needs a lot of setup. I will work through it later. I may end up using DOSLynx instead. But we’ll wait and see.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I downloaded the latest DOSLynx on my Win7 FTP Server and then used mTCP FTP to copy the files onto the FreeDOS machine. I put the zip files into C:\NET\DOSLYNX and then unzipped them. I read the docs and then setup the config file. I then launched DOSLynx and it started up. But when I tried to go to </span><a href="http://www.google.com" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.google.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> it came back with an error saying it couldn’t find a packet driver.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The XP machine showed there was still a connection. I tried using mTCP PING. It failed. Somehow we lost the connection. I shut down and rebooted the FreeDOS machine. Then I entered the LSppp configuration again at the command line and then ran the ip-up.bat.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now I tried DOSLynx again. It works! I can now reach the internet and browse to websites. I had success with DOSLynx before on my 286 so I figured it would work. It is easier for me to setup than Lynx or Links. But I will keep trying with those other browsers. For now, DOSLynx will be my text browser.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had considered taking the ISA Ethernet card out of my KLH 286-12 machine and installing it in this PB 486DX2-66. The results I was getting with ethernet and internet were not quite what I wanted for this 486. But after I got DOSLynx installed and running in 32-bit Protected Mode I am more than satisfied with using the serial port ethernet emulator. DOSLYNXS.EXE runs very well on this machine using the serial port. I will go ahead and keep this setup and keep the ISA Ethernet card setup in the KLH-286, at least for now.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also considered setting up Laplink cables for both machines and not worrying about ethernet connections. But the mTCP FTP software is more than adequate for transfering files over the serial port set up with the LSPPP ethernet emulator. I think I will save the Laplink cables for use on other machines. My plan for this machine is to replace the Dell P-III running Win98SE in the corner behind my desk chair. I will have both the KLH-286 and this PB-486 set up as DOS only machines - the KLH-286 running DR-DOS and this PB-486 machine running FreeDOS.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, off to move things around in that corner and setup the cables, etc.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I moved the PB486 to the shelf above the monitor and reorganized the RLH-286 on the desk under the monitor. I removed the printer cables and switch. I also connected the modem directly to the KLH-286 25-pin serial port. I tested the KLH-286 internet connection and made sure it was working. Then I shut it down and worked on the cable connection from the PB-486 to the Windows7 serial port. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After I made the serial cable connections between the two computers I tried looking through control panel on the Win7 machine to set up an incoming connection. I couldn’t see anything that would work the same way as it did on XP. So, I started up the XP Virtual PC and set up the serial modem connection using XP, following the same procedure I used before on the other XP machine. After I got the incoming connection set up on the XP Virtual PC (on the Win7 machine) I ran the LSPPP.BAT file on the PB-486 FreeDOS machine. It worked! I was able to connect to the internet thru the Virtual PC XP machine. I tested DOSLynx and downloaded a couple of files. It all works.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the files I downloaded is a program called COSTA. It is a GUI for DOS, similar to a simple desktop in Linux like JWM but without a menu. I guess it is more similar to Windows 3. It is actually a fairly usable system and the best DOS GUI I have tried so far. I may decide to keep it. I set up two launchers, one to launch the DOSLynx browser and one for the DOS Navigator file manager. It all works.</span></p><br /><br /></span>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-49040466557883976402022-05-01T07:57:00.004-07:002022-05-02T08:31:45.494-07:00AST Premium 486/33 Cupid<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">AST Premium 486/33 Cupid</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-d20d555a-7fff-dec3-6949-754b30724773"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was the second PC Compatible that I acquired, after the Tandy 1400FD I purchased and used as my first PC. (Prior to these PC’s my main computer was the N* Advantage running CP/M). This AST was given to me by another member of the MHV Computer Club. She said it did not work. But I took it home and fiddled with it and I got it to work. It remained my main PC for several years and I used DOS most of the time until toward the end of its use when I started experimenting with Windows 3.11.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At some point I moved on to Windows 98, 2000 and XP on other systems and I put this machine in storage. This was before I actively started playing with old computers as a hobby. Some years later I pulled it out of storage to see if I could still use it. I found a mouse nest inside and did a quick cleanout - not a full teardown and thorough cleaning. I attempted to get it to work but was not successful. I don’t remember exactly what I did - only that I could not get a floppy to boot. I don’t remember if I was able to get into the BIOS setup or not. At any rate I got discouraged and set it aside. It’s been sitting on the bottom shelf in my lab ever since. I often looked at it and hoped I could get it working again. Today I am giving it another try.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have watched a lot of videos recently on old ISA generation computers and I wondered if I could clean up this old AST and get it to POST or get into the BIOS. The only cards in the case are the Cupid Daughter board with the 486DX CPU and a Multi-I/O card that was used for the drives and serial and parallel ports. There was no video card or floppy drive, or hard drive. The CD-ROM drive was in the case but not connected to anything. The mess from the mouses nest was still there.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I began by tearing it completely down into its parts so I could remove the motherboard for cleaning. I removed the interface cards first and then the power supply. Then I removed the motherboard. I opened the power supply and it was very dusty. I took it outside and brushed and blew it off with a vacuum hose. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiugFCE5sq5wD2UrS6mY241sqx7Qi7voiohC_7WJSyGBEJ5kvaqdmwHCiaTzWeu2PXcaUzqLtgCvFALGXeb6isyDWyPW7_0ZKIZfygkpFJtYNTa8SnGFItwm9J8heBSBz3u4ESaIPH50TU_rp4zfOSgIWNEokHz4YBYN0DOgSIs68Aw-y1hoOlDJfO1HQ/s1600/IMG_20220427_100206077.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiugFCE5sq5wD2UrS6mY241sqx7Qi7voiohC_7WJSyGBEJ5kvaqdmwHCiaTzWeu2PXcaUzqLtgCvFALGXeb6isyDWyPW7_0ZKIZfygkpFJtYNTa8SnGFItwm9J8heBSBz3u4ESaIPH50TU_rp4zfOSgIWNEokHz4YBYN0DOgSIs68Aw-y1hoOlDJfO1HQ/s320/IMG_20220427_100206077.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge4vICox5XsjKXlQEk9-cVkM6g0Wa5oHxBT6vlPNdccE3jrkGLEbTLEvQQwN8cEWRinD4-5XfjjwAeQ-Eyg2Z3d_1EuZcI-fCfVi3dIs__3SS5_mZebdN5vrQU6jQMvsZM-eNP_EEGGJ2y2Yy9yMvyU2yJ9DChNxwVsu7keXSi5PDz0c1WYKZln_Vtrw/s1600/IMG_20220427_100212251.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge4vICox5XsjKXlQEk9-cVkM6g0Wa5oHxBT6vlPNdccE3jrkGLEbTLEvQQwN8cEWRinD4-5XfjjwAeQ-Eyg2Z3d_1EuZcI-fCfVi3dIs__3SS5_mZebdN5vrQU6jQMvsZM-eNP_EEGGJ2y2Yy9yMvyU2yJ9DChNxwVsu7keXSi5PDz0c1WYKZln_Vtrw/s320/IMG_20220427_100212251.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6d1jhdMnozRHRUPWej0efSocLiSkwW_zCilzKHZxB18m00huUIkn_B0aZPRcp6nkj_dnkfZyaubTs0dULYJtIbXuxmsWxN8FgJIoBej72-rElc-GqOVKRhWyu_lZHhXG2Uj6eRlNzJ69R7p2VQMK5Soo18qHQuhSa8hA2TpAe0SBpa9hpEriZUqXwZw/s1600/IMG_20220427_100228686.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6d1jhdMnozRHRUPWej0efSocLiSkwW_zCilzKHZxB18m00huUIkn_B0aZPRcp6nkj_dnkfZyaubTs0dULYJtIbXuxmsWxN8FgJIoBej72-rElc-GqOVKRhWyu_lZHhXG2Uj6eRlNzJ69R7p2VQMK5Soo18qHQuhSa8hA2TpAe0SBpa9hpEriZUqXwZw/s320/IMG_20220427_100228686.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhkNNr_KA8sXjMWwDfb_uX6IhlHycEJBSejfLojzFDT4hWkxFLk7CNnzPlm035-CF_4e39wZQr2tMlGhPCimHFVobuG3sa6jU_29UlMDez8uw4LmpOFUGdiGTQND3wsAtB0-NlORrpIqh9wVmDvpxDFhnNp9ZapZsvBWhl8-s2wscgkeWD1Bd8-8nzeQ/s3264/IMG_20220427_121424409.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhkNNr_KA8sXjMWwDfb_uX6IhlHycEJBSejfLojzFDT4hWkxFLk7CNnzPlm035-CF_4e39wZQr2tMlGhPCimHFVobuG3sa6jU_29UlMDez8uw4LmpOFUGdiGTQND3wsAtB0-NlORrpIqh9wVmDvpxDFhnNp9ZapZsvBWhl8-s2wscgkeWD1Bd8-8nzeQ/s320/IMG_20220427_121424409.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-YX5F33Mj2awovjUuzL-CXhqSnFgiyW3cx58zjIqD1szNqDdPX8Di8f8f_PkYFgh4XzZGPRnIRCJvqylLfMJCDYkpiB4YcqXj0gZ4FiYHUu_xObm86iV7Hjo38n3c7M9u5sEKjCKOgfJryICdA79sZl83lRcymbnmxeS88ckVIvmjed-w8gcE-R2fA/s3264/IMG_20220427_121404878.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-YX5F33Mj2awovjUuzL-CXhqSnFgiyW3cx58zjIqD1szNqDdPX8Di8f8f_PkYFgh4XzZGPRnIRCJvqylLfMJCDYkpiB4YcqXj0gZ4FiYHUu_xObm86iV7Hjo38n3c7M9u5sEKjCKOgfJryICdA79sZl83lRcymbnmxeS88ckVIvmjed-w8gcE-R2fA/s320/IMG_20220427_121404878.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I then started cleaning the motherboard. I first cleaned it with vinegar and a toothbrush. Then I followed that up with distilled water and finally Isopropyl Alcohol. I let it sit for a while to begin drying and I reassembled the power supply.</span></span></p><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4UcsSku3bKrnhXJCaaT0gKBhA0Rb0amD4epCP4tZ--Il3owXrJGLdPml9_WAk0jdbJ0gteg8Vt2qMhTYd5ZE9ePPMstNXPxsUyT95c0ZPA7MJdPaUqkEvvLUtXfD8iH5Fld_A3pEI9qD9jtm0n-2YB0RCqNwlvDtLX1Wkwl8g01fKxTbQaYRoIKF47g/s3264/IMG_20220427_142541285.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4UcsSku3bKrnhXJCaaT0gKBhA0Rb0amD4epCP4tZ--Il3owXrJGLdPml9_WAk0jdbJ0gteg8Vt2qMhTYd5ZE9ePPMstNXPxsUyT95c0ZPA7MJdPaUqkEvvLUtXfD8iH5Fld_A3pEI9qD9jtm0n-2YB0RCqNwlvDtLX1Wkwl8g01fKxTbQaYRoIKF47g/s320/IMG_20220427_142541285.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheTDod8jhMZ7qyVxw-pz40uKviPKJtnXIadLtKh8jfobBYBJBiqhlA_le0xeDhATN6Wsn8MdbHYpdQWnnEVp7z-TpZ9aVHkl_JjUM3bRP6Tahd4YTTtPfybpWc9_1VDw2VxvH4KfzjCK-hs5Bpz8yEMyujKZItBYsVyfdCXReqGZ-8oaLblZNugaZ7LQ/s3264/IMG_20220427_142605949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheTDod8jhMZ7qyVxw-pz40uKviPKJtnXIadLtKh8jfobBYBJBiqhlA_le0xeDhATN6Wsn8MdbHYpdQWnnEVp7z-TpZ9aVHkl_JjUM3bRP6Tahd4YTTtPfybpWc9_1VDw2VxvH4KfzjCK-hs5Bpz8yEMyujKZItBYsVyfdCXReqGZ-8oaLblZNugaZ7LQ/s320/IMG_20220427_142605949.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></span></div><div><span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I set all the boards up in front of the electric floor heater and used the vacuum blower to remove as much moisture as I could then I let it sit in front of the heater/blower for a few hours. While waiting for the boards to dry I cleaned the case.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrNOXi1p3IvdlEtGU_IVjfIAi3puQBpQU0eA5Wo2nz8Z2TuOnZuMzseu54eh9kKeGzun_gZ_NFZ3gz3GPFc2w_rec5Zs51fb-4kd-I9AK-Y9mYLI_anMmfsnP_Bsx2OoAf5mhMwuwqnvspWs31XG3qgWJycHPSG51hAfSASWUs98u-lQ9hNMCzeYapjg/s3264/IMG_20220427_143835860.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrNOXi1p3IvdlEtGU_IVjfIAi3puQBpQU0eA5Wo2nz8Z2TuOnZuMzseu54eh9kKeGzun_gZ_NFZ3gz3GPFc2w_rec5Zs51fb-4kd-I9AK-Y9mYLI_anMmfsnP_Bsx2OoAf5mhMwuwqnvspWs31XG3qgWJycHPSG51hAfSASWUs98u-lQ9hNMCzeYapjg/s320/IMG_20220427_143835860.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhugjtllv6TlwLHAd6rZFEdNGDpfvAtYTVWs0hSz9u4WdLQEn-19fKxw0ksoI0cALknePYeN5lDqAPsFEGHYLygHpjxIAmd3mDWpCKoa1x81_HEezl5-GCwSWLCLV6yoP5v9iPPt6_FlGAGJMdIyUNQahQeIAPENB3e8cdAT8wxqwREXXzL_eRVnEM1GQ/s3264/IMG_20220427_144149753.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="1836" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhugjtllv6TlwLHAd6rZFEdNGDpfvAtYTVWs0hSz9u4WdLQEn-19fKxw0ksoI0cALknePYeN5lDqAPsFEGHYLygHpjxIAmd3mDWpCKoa1x81_HEezl5-GCwSWLCLV6yoP5v9iPPt6_FlGAGJMdIyUNQahQeIAPENB3e8cdAT8wxqwREXXzL_eRVnEM1GQ/s320/IMG_20220427_144149753.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfX1nIsqcnZu-9tK5reDuUt118VXUYY-HXlK0tC3hsBZb4BZh6YMdyfOu37c87If7x9OdSpkdfMZGMdRfk_SYy_iUOnPX1BHPk-PJpng-fbuQ9rRXQsGuaiDrx3x5Kx1LWCmgEQZaHgTMhK9vBYq1JbSwi36TP8jo4_KzwAqWJHFZq4fPJXh9usKPFMw/s3264/IMG_20220427_144527146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfX1nIsqcnZu-9tK5reDuUt118VXUYY-HXlK0tC3hsBZb4BZh6YMdyfOu37c87If7x9OdSpkdfMZGMdRfk_SYy_iUOnPX1BHPk-PJpng-fbuQ9rRXQsGuaiDrx3x5Kx1LWCmgEQZaHgTMhK9vBYq1JbSwi36TP8jo4_KzwAqWJHFZq4fPJXh9usKPFMw/s320/IMG_20220427_144527146.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9v0JrP2FQ9gJuDG3vjlAY72KKhGhbp3AlwNdcKazzyDUXuTfHmFCkDjWM2A53SY4sjXb5zE0zX24W-W1st8Ix1sD8YdpEtscfttxvXKBWd8U6QSLPUSbvvShncpoCcRaWOpW_JW7TLKrDIJ9baJ7h3UDtymIfscRfDsfd9Jk6lpfJPkOaChTvXqwkg/s3264/IMG_20220427_144543837.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="1836" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9v0JrP2FQ9gJuDG3vjlAY72KKhGhbp3AlwNdcKazzyDUXuTfHmFCkDjWM2A53SY4sjXb5zE0zX24W-W1st8Ix1sD8YdpEtscfttxvXKBWd8U6QSLPUSbvvShncpoCcRaWOpW_JW7TLKrDIJ9baJ7h3UDtymIfscRfDsfd9Jk6lpfJPkOaChTvXqwkg/s320/IMG_20220427_144543837.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the boards were dry I started to reassemble the computer. I installed the motherboard and then the daughterboard. Then I installed the power supply, leaving it disconnected until I tested it first with my multimeter. I had an old battery pack so I put in new batteries and attached it to the battery header. I attached the front panel wires and the speaker. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2i_jh2GE2nrpGQZbSDpmgQxAnV8oh7NV6P5QZTk1q4zpl5SfCDvuIoTWBY7iBkr16xQFqC113aGvjy5wQ0Y14OcvSb8zZb1L1MKrh_myQbUdErdBqH4Hy3sW1kgfqlApqXCmGgx7PhOILdIghEegJL_cLYdGqvxL5gMjnCDFPBEHs-NiGF78jbi1OA/s3264/IMG_20220427_174511067.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2i_jh2GE2nrpGQZbSDpmgQxAnV8oh7NV6P5QZTk1q4zpl5SfCDvuIoTWBY7iBkr16xQFqC113aGvjy5wQ0Y14OcvSb8zZb1L1MKrh_myQbUdErdBqH4Hy3sW1kgfqlApqXCmGgx7PhOILdIghEegJL_cLYdGqvxL5gMjnCDFPBEHs-NiGF78jbi1OA/s320/IMG_20220427_174511067.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWbnN8pVEjAiLK9V1Y85Nqn7SbF5JQJX-I8A1azu9Ek9G56gxX2FQ5LZ9ChYHrP9wtRRwnR0ltgC0jXRNcFsXVVj3y8T9CXQSueEnRrGYXfUOKT_eZHdMsv61jBwWgUX6MqekIRfOXV7JcXgdYVO5OjkO_ZwCcydWVJIN38RhRJXhE7CByl3AqeIaZQ/s3264/IMG_20220427_175613725.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWbnN8pVEjAiLK9V1Y85Nqn7SbF5JQJX-I8A1azu9Ek9G56gxX2FQ5LZ9ChYHrP9wtRRwnR0ltgC0jXRNcFsXVVj3y8T9CXQSueEnRrGYXfUOKT_eZHdMsv61jBwWgUX6MqekIRfOXV7JcXgdYVO5OjkO_ZwCcydWVJIN38RhRJXhE7CByl3AqeIaZQ/s320/IMG_20220427_175613725.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODPo4S82NUThZOWpHlr0ipnj7pLjzJl2udXCIPY1fHhG2JiIES7FevM13TKfJX6japT3ZtYJQecrLbDGqUIGglfpilKoaFq-ZaxflL5GhIVGR77yFYIPMEGK180N6uFPr_XHT1g7LY9gnLXkd2KoHoYAx5Mh8vqG2uRW90yLnoi7oD9wiU2fwgZr6fw/s3264/IMG_20220427_175620878.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODPo4S82NUThZOWpHlr0ipnj7pLjzJl2udXCIPY1fHhG2JiIES7FevM13TKfJX6japT3ZtYJQecrLbDGqUIGglfpilKoaFq-ZaxflL5GhIVGR77yFYIPMEGK180N6uFPr_XHT1g7LY9gnLXkd2KoHoYAx5Mh8vqG2uRW90yLnoi7oD9wiU2fwgZr6fw/s320/IMG_20220427_175620878.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next, I used my multimeter to test the power coming out of the power cables. I tested both the +5v and +12v rails and everything looked good. I attached the power cables from the power supply to the motherboard and started getting ready for a smoke test. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzRzsNnjIlWcxeAIcXvbjIf94CpRi0qtOQr9Bmg-Vo8uKYJQ3gfezg5kduDGzKzUnXxNmca60HDWN8cT-WNVoHmoSnA-QoMliOD8KNkb7jMvKOJ5vd6JgbhHXwFPw3Q_9NKN7--vEMjvwDNpF05zAebQf5XBK8uwKnnjHrvQCvg30equ7_6YKR1n9Q8Q/s3264/IMG_20220427_180521830.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzRzsNnjIlWcxeAIcXvbjIf94CpRi0qtOQr9Bmg-Vo8uKYJQ3gfezg5kduDGzKzUnXxNmca60HDWN8cT-WNVoHmoSnA-QoMliOD8KNkb7jMvKOJ5vd6JgbhHXwFPw3Q_9NKN7--vEMjvwDNpF05zAebQf5XBK8uwKnnjHrvQCvg30equ7_6YKR1n9Q8Q/s320/IMG_20220427_180521830.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I plugged in a hard drive and floppy drive to use as load. I went ahead and attached them with ribbon cables to the motherboard headers for the floppy and IDE drives, just in case it works. I had to find both a video card and a keyboard before I could give it a test. I found an 8-bit VGA card and put it in the last slot. I have an old IBM AT keyboard and I plugged it into the 5-pin AT keyboard port. I am now ready to give this thing a smoke test. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyyN4zDFXQ_jRzSxG0rPNBevC-vomSPsStw2AKMh5ER62NfVGqqCVQuRDg-hKOjnPrKAebpwEqtV5_mrDnyTbORhWXXD-f2qkAC7n8fA1YV33QfTh9Wgo_Y1jEOgLmp_qqtubdteGE62uJBGRX9w4jOrdjgkeutivHp9FeFuEgDBoaPs2dhYeqnybAA/s3264/IMG_20220427_183452838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyyN4zDFXQ_jRzSxG0rPNBevC-vomSPsStw2AKMh5ER62NfVGqqCVQuRDg-hKOjnPrKAebpwEqtV5_mrDnyTbORhWXXD-f2qkAC7n8fA1YV33QfTh9Wgo_Y1jEOgLmp_qqtubdteGE62uJBGRX9w4jOrdjgkeutivHp9FeFuEgDBoaPs2dhYeqnybAA/s320/IMG_20220427_183452838.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCHX8u0PdvpS4hwCK4QxJ2KnWSvEuPNyCT3gGqr8hfrWCYHTjc5QmMG8FqvHBHpLR5YekFqxpB6r8t-_esIXFo0lCazpkLOjqeuKncN6tOgHtwtXulUPpvIX_WxmY8T5Ib6eBpsiEbgwOm1YXhhRRVuhH1Lw_Q7pGWt_GX-2HCqBgq_t56y7JhT77rsQ/s3264/IMG_20220427_183501178.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCHX8u0PdvpS4hwCK4QxJ2KnWSvEuPNyCT3gGqr8hfrWCYHTjc5QmMG8FqvHBHpLR5YekFqxpB6r8t-_esIXFo0lCazpkLOjqeuKncN6tOgHtwtXulUPpvIX_WxmY8T5Ib6eBpsiEbgwOm1YXhhRRVuhH1Lw_Q7pGWt_GX-2HCqBgq_t56y7JhT77rsQ/s320/IMG_20220427_183501178.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiquD5ApPbWX-3alZoRAqqA0HIGxyBHwTyfNzYLVDmnZc0nd03XBktGfOZT-dNAd_-S6n4ymPACiS4KzpSMbuEXNkvorBzFPUX7XmDqtOwb26OUcVq624z9j4cfHKk3P72ft5rUh9ySRM1BPiQOlPHqhfUTKQN1jHM6HBwQ1a4daclDfZMWzboYugI-4Q/s3264/IMG_20220427_183519788.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiquD5ApPbWX-3alZoRAqqA0HIGxyBHwTyfNzYLVDmnZc0nd03XBktGfOZT-dNAd_-S6n4ymPACiS4KzpSMbuEXNkvorBzFPUX7XmDqtOwb26OUcVq624z9j4cfHKk3P72ft5rUh9ySRM1BPiQOlPHqhfUTKQN1jHM6HBwQ1a4daclDfZMWzboYugI-4Q/s320/IMG_20220427_183519788.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From some of the videos I learned that the key combo for the BIOS setup is probably Ctrl-Alt-Esc. But it might also be F2 or F1. I am ready to power on and I hope that nothing blows up! Here we go!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVGxTdPoRVCw3hTeZjWf9c9GFTmwdXM4waFKB-odVYB9Ka_l3pxutULsk_s6yZbFjmhCvKR2iNHE5rd5eUekbPvo7YK8WSWLALS3btoTmpTDHCUj4GLsakZNWy3gEZMwNudo7ltX9AGglB9nVf1Lz8QWEJXG5v5JhXXbWM2gfKijjKGvAZD6HUQZXlw/s3264/IMG_20220427_193419879.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="1836" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVGxTdPoRVCw3hTeZjWf9c9GFTmwdXM4waFKB-odVYB9Ka_l3pxutULsk_s6yZbFjmhCvKR2iNHE5rd5eUekbPvo7YK8WSWLALS3btoTmpTDHCUj4GLsakZNWy3gEZMwNudo7ltX9AGglB9nVf1Lz8QWEJXG5v5JhXXbWM2gfKijjKGvAZD6HUQZXlw/s320/IMG_20220427_193419879.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSTPZ7JH-79PgbylKGHY7PYYG8hYGhsiL9lr9YgatV0rw44-_5hFtuAnZ2eeqpq6jVLFn-6p1ivIw9C9mwj3HYJYARv5ZIKSdBDGoI6Zrfi9SelVk7ZzRQWyGJEQ0Ku5sWVyBn4Q4ixq7dmCcS4c9pH4BT25WFL9uireHLhU5Tn9dN7TptJfKoHy8p_A/s3264/IMG_20220427_193428877.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSTPZ7JH-79PgbylKGHY7PYYG8hYGhsiL9lr9YgatV0rw44-_5hFtuAnZ2eeqpq6jVLFn-6p1ivIw9C9mwj3HYJYARv5ZIKSdBDGoI6Zrfi9SelVk7ZzRQWyGJEQ0Ku5sWVyBn4Q4ixq7dmCcS4c9pH4BT25WFL9uireHLhU5Tn9dN7TptJfKoHy8p_A/s320/IMG_20220427_193428877.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Whoo Hoo! It POSTED and messages came on screen and I got two beeps. This is good! And it is farther than I remember getting before. The messages are:</span></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VGA-BIOS © 1991 American Megatrends Inc.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Version no. - 1.c, All rights reserved</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">AST CUPID BIOS Rel. 1.34</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Copyright © AST Research, Inc. 1987-91</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All rights reserved</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[40.06] Testing CMOS Battery …Failed</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[40.08] Testing CMOS Checksum …Failed</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BASE Memory …640K</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Extended Memory …15360K</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Testing Memory … 16000K OK</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Testing Cache …Enabled</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[10.03] Video Configuration Error - Run Setup</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To Access Setup Program, Press Ctl-Alt-Esc now.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[40.01] CMOS RAM Error, Check battery/run setup</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[20.03 Memory Size error - Run Setup</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[40.02] Equipment Configuration Error - Run Setup</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Press F1 Key to continu or Ctrl-Alt-Esc for Setup…</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hit Ctrl-Alt-Esc. I did get into the BIOS setup but the keyboard is not working. I tried two other keyboards. The Model M just had a continuous beep. The PC Parter does not beep but it does not seem to be responding. I’ll have to try to reboot with this keyboard attached. Lets’ see what happens. I hit the Reset button on the front panel. That killed the screen but did not reboot. Next, I turned off the power switch and then turned on the power switch.That did it. This keyboard is working.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will need to get a new battery. I went ahead and set the BIOS settings and saved and rebooted. It did not like the floppy of hard drive settings and did not boot. Try a different floppy. I put in a different floppy, a Mitsumi 1.44. When I started up there were no errors and I went into BIOS Setup. All the settings were where I left them. Battery catching up? I reset the boot mode to Auto and rebooted. The hard drive interface failed but the floppy tried to boot. That’s something. It ended in an error :</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">RAM Parity Error, Checking for segment address..Offending Segment: 0036.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now let’s try the Multi-I/O card. I disabled the onboard ports after installing the I/O card and rebooted. The floppy drive light lights up but it does not boot. The hard drive is not recognized.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can’t remember but this may be where I was last time. Is this a bad I/O card? Let’s try the onboard floppy controller again. I disabled the hard drive and enabled the floppy only.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The floppy tried to boot but failed to find a system disk. Try another disk. Then try other drives.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It booted! I have an A; prompt. There was an error on the disk but it booted. We’re making progress! Try another disk. Try adding the hard drive. I enabled the hard drive and rebooted. Error initializing hard disk controller. Hit F1 but floppy will not boot. Set HD to “None” but left header enabled. Floppy will not boot. Disable HD header. Floppy wont boot.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Disabled onboard ports and installed Multi-I/O card. Double-checked all the pin settings on the card. Same error about initializing hard drive controller. Floppy won’t boot. Try another hard drive.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve tried everything I can think of. Won’t boot from floppy. It did it once only. Not since.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Need to get a new battery and another Multiu-I/O card. That’s it for now.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OK, interesting - I tried setting the floppy to 720K and rebooted to a 720K DOS 3.3 boot disk. It worked! I booted into DOS 3.3. This is on a 1.44 floppy drive. But I know most 1.44 drives can act like 720K drives. Weird. The BIOS does seem to support 1.44. Anyway, lets try staying with 720K for now and see if I can access a hard drive. Nope. Back to where we were before. Will not boot.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, I’ve got it to boot twice now. Once was on a 1.44 disk of DOS 5. Once was on a 720K disk with DOS 3.3. I each case it was after setting the BIOS - the first was set to 1.44, the second time it was set to 720K. But it doesn’t seem to matter. I tried setting back to 1.44 and put in a 1.44 disk but it did not boot. I also tried resetting to 720K and putting in the 720K disk and it did not boot. Maybe it was after a time being off? and an immediate reboot does not work? Try waiting a while with the computer off.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Could I try partitioning and formatting the hard drive in another computer, install DOS, and then trying to boot from it?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OK, I waited a while and then put in an MS-DOS 5.0 boot/install disk and rebooted. It worked. I also replaced the 8-bit VGA with a 16-bit VGA card. Don’t know if it will make a difference. And can I use this boot to install DOS to the hard drive? Fdisk says No Fixed Disk Present. Will need to go back into BIOS Setup. Then shutdown and wait a while before booting.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next morning I booted on the 720k MS-DOS 5.0 disk. I reset the BIOS to 1.44 for both A and B then ran MS-DOS setup onto 4 1.44 disks. I then copied all the files to the first 2 disks. Then I reset both floppies to 720k and ran the MS-DOS 5.0 setup again onto 4 720k disks. Then I reset both floppies back to 1.44 and rebooted into the newly created MS-DOS 5.0 1.44M boot disk. It works. I have a dual floppy system in both 1.44M and 720k drives.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before this I found another Multi-I/O card and I put it in. The floppy drives are working. But I cannot get the hard drive controller to work. I disabled the IDE and booted only from floppy. I did the above MS-DOS 5.0 installs using this card with the HD disabled. I also pulled an older hard drive from my PC Partner 386sx but I could not get it to work any differently than the other hard drive. I left the hard drive unplugged and the M-I/O IDE port disabled and only used the two floppies, as outlined above.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next, I tried to enable the onboard hard drive header again. I left the M-I/O card’s IDE disabled and hooked up the ribbon cable from the HD to the onboard header again and attached the power cable to the HD. Then I rebooted into the BIOS and reset both floppies to 1.44 and the HD to 99 and enabled the onboard header. (I had previously set up this hard drive’s type as 99) Then I rebooted. I expected an error that the hard drive controller could not be initialized and a boot failure. This has been consistently happening every time previously. Instead, there were no errors and the floppy drive booted into MS-DOS 5.0 from the 1.44M floppy. Hmm. Lets try to FDISK the hard drive and see what happens.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FDISK found the hard drive this time! I’m astonished! Is this because it is an older hard drive and that the built-in IDE header only works with older drives? Or is this because MS-DOS has setup this machine differently? Let’s try putting the other drive back on the ribbon cable and see what happens. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I did that I took a look at the C: and D: drives from this hard drive. I think it might boot into a working system. Let’s try that first. Yes, it did boot to MS-DOS 5.0 from Drive C: Windows is on this disk but it is not automatically launched from autoexec.bat. Let’s launch it and see what happens. I typed “Win” followed by “Enter” and that started up WfW3.11. There was an error about the sound card missing and there is no mouse. But I remember using this system on the PC Partner. Cool. OK, I seem to have a working hard drive controller now. Let’s try the other hard drive.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I removed the older drive and attached the other IDE drive I had been using before. It is an 800MB drive and I had previously set it in the BIOS as a type 98. I booted into the BIOS and set the hard drive to type 98 and then rebooted. I am back to the same errors as before. No hard drive unable to boot to floppy (oops, forgot to load the floppy - it does boot. But still no hard drive). This would seem to confirm that this BIOS does not like this “newer” hard drive and only works with “older” IDE hard drives. Let’s put it back to the older hard drive and see what happens.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, the “older” IDE hard drive does work. So, all of the trouble appears to be caused by an incompatible hard drive. Maybe I can use an Ontrack overlay? I’ll try that. If all else fails I can go ahead and use this old drive from the PC Partner since that machine is not working. OK, off to try an overlay program.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried using a drive utility but it won’t work with this BIOS. Too much trouble to try and load another BIOS to support a newer IDE hard drive with overlay. I’ll settle for the older drives. I found the old IDE drive from the Packard Bell 486 that I put FreeDOS on. It works. I don’t need it for anything else anymore so, we’ll go ahead and install MS-DOS 5.0 on it and Windows 3.11. I’ll also go ahead and add the serial ports from the M-I/O card for use with a mouse and Laplink. Not sure yet about a sound card. We’ll add in the CD-ROM to the same ribbon cable as the HD to see it that will work. If not, maybe I can get the IDE interface on the M-I/O card to run the CD-ROM. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I attached the CD-ROM to the ribbon cable as a Slave drive. I was able to get the FreeDOS CD driver to see it. But it would not read a directory of a CD. Not sure if it’s the CD-ROM drive or something else. Let’s go ahead and install DOS 5.0 and then try MSCDX.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I start formatting drives I decided to try the M-I/O cards again for the Hard Drive. The original M-I/O would not even boot. I reinstalled the second M-I/O card, enabling the IDE port. It did allow booting and the floppy worked to boot into DOS. However, there was no hard drive available. I went back to the motherboard header and the hard drive works. I will use the hard drive header on the motherboard for the hard drive and the M-I/O card for the floppies and Serial/Parallel ports. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, apparently the problem is in the BIOS and it does not support the IDE port on the M-I/O cards, or any “newer” style IDE hard drives after about 1990/91. But what does work is the floppy and I/O on the M-I/O card and the hard drive header on the motherboard. I disabled the floppy and serial and parallel on the motherboard. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, back to setting up DOS. Should I stay with the Windows 95 on the hard drive? Is DOS 5.0 already on there? Can I get Win 3.11 on there if I leave it formatted the way it is? Tried booting from Hard Drive - it didn’t work. I’ll assume it is broken and start over.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I used FDISK to remove the former partition and created a new primary partition using the entire 500MB drive. Then I rebooted and used “Format C: /s” to format the C: drive using DOS 5.0. Now I will use the MS-DOS 5.0 install disks to install DOS 5.0 to the hard drive. Then I’ll use my Windows 3.1 diskettes to install Win 3.1 (not WfW 3.11). </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAFwegWktGuYTR_ZdvpKvTdpK8qGVlCgAgCrs3FnFCXYmQmKjYBTKWLsi738ziUONVYcl_AQH9NoiRzZQbQwa5JR_oJyy-R6Yux4o-LVqvJ8ICrtn1N6XrnggORH8W-Q2jhJJP6KpL6n-dNp_17N7l4U7DDufqc_CkdphzGXw3-YhEtoNft7MBEZbAbw/s3264/IMG_20220428_163043853.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAFwegWktGuYTR_ZdvpKvTdpK8qGVlCgAgCrs3FnFCXYmQmKjYBTKWLsi738ziUONVYcl_AQH9NoiRzZQbQwa5JR_oJyy-R6Yux4o-LVqvJ8ICrtn1N6XrnggORH8W-Q2jhJJP6KpL6n-dNp_17N7l4U7DDufqc_CkdphzGXw3-YhEtoNft7MBEZbAbw/s320/IMG_20220428_163043853.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1deV80TY4PvNCoW4VUQGVT4NopzhNQzTCt5NEwMM5tWhGlKbUpoi9NxKxdR4qDQ_MgqW4mMCwDiWpBEOmLxBJ4t7Flj9B288fSl8CwIn60bRam0z7R9KzqmvukYB0aW1pqEWCvEkmgAggYxXjoY3N1rYbRbCcV8i3EkQieeGnhVk8eYL6gjUlv3pGA/s3264/IMG_20220428_163051406.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1deV80TY4PvNCoW4VUQGVT4NopzhNQzTCt5NEwMM5tWhGlKbUpoi9NxKxdR4qDQ_MgqW4mMCwDiWpBEOmLxBJ4t7Flj9B288fSl8CwIn60bRam0z7R9KzqmvukYB0aW1pqEWCvEkmgAggYxXjoY3N1rYbRbCcV8i3EkQieeGnhVk8eYL6gjUlv3pGA/s320/IMG_20220428_163051406.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I successfully installed Win 3.1 after a small glitch with a few files not being copied from the diskettes. I used another set of disks and re-installed and it finished with no errors. I started up Windows and there was no mouse. I tried installing a mouse from the command line but it wouldn’t work. I installed CuteMouse and scanned the ports for a mouse. No mouse loaded. I have a serial port problem.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJDEY1SthGustkdBOu_R3U6hbdw3ray3vZj4qX09p5LTqHLuQjzidSx0K_T5zvSa5GxnGa6bAa59rkHh1Ouz0xTjZymp82PWfKqJfd2wGluwNndS5JsxLJE1WHs2AMSuQ2mUU3-F3YDKWXv38tX6wjv5IcHwWNFraWWJcYqrgTC6TuGvTrXg2RoWhFpQ/s3264/IMG_20220428_164425677.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJDEY1SthGustkdBOu_R3U6hbdw3ray3vZj4qX09p5LTqHLuQjzidSx0K_T5zvSa5GxnGa6bAa59rkHh1Ouz0xTjZymp82PWfKqJfd2wGluwNndS5JsxLJE1WHs2AMSuQ2mUU3-F3YDKWXv38tX6wjv5IcHwWNFraWWJcYqrgTC6TuGvTrXg2RoWhFpQ/s320/IMG_20220428_164425677.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNfR_W_X4RANBVJ3ol8Wc3VancsjSbdDJLKmpmT3wp_tZCJNaeCaZ9u4lEOJftGJDLK-wzdMtPUZpVoLVbwoPxvPDhKIgM0vr1CrTPLmpX31e_J1L1NJ2r6y-__ncTNOjPtjk9bc2yI1PGv_ZhLc6vsZ1ULdOJgMFRRjm6Qi4ROK6dUDuFGiEZ2h4VNA/s3264/IMG_20220428_221425463.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNfR_W_X4RANBVJ3ol8Wc3VancsjSbdDJLKmpmT3wp_tZCJNaeCaZ9u4lEOJftGJDLK-wzdMtPUZpVoLVbwoPxvPDhKIgM0vr1CrTPLmpX31e_J1L1NJ2r6y-__ncTNOjPtjk9bc2yI1PGv_ZhLc6vsZ1ULdOJgMFRRjm6Qi4ROK6dUDuFGiEZ2h4VNA/s320/IMG_20220428_221425463.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried enabling the motherboard serial ports. They would not work. I enabled the M-I/O card’s serial and parallel and game ports. But I could not get any mouse to activate on the ports. Checkit saw the ports and so did CuteMouse but the mouse would not show up on anything. I found an 8-bit ISA Serial/Parallel port card and I disabled the ports again on the M-I/O card. Checkit said there was a COM2 and LPT1 and LPT2 (I thought I had disabled the parallel port on the M-I/O but it turns out I still had it active). I put the mouse on the newly installed Serial/Parallel card and ran CuteMouse. It worked! But CuteMouse said it was on COM1. Weird, but the address worked and the mouse worked in Windows. I shutdown and enabled one of the COM ports and the game port on the M-I/O card. After a reboot and a BIOS setup I could no longer use the mouse. Checkit showed the serial port but the mouse would not connect. I disabled the COM ports on the M-I/O again and now the mouse worked again.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, the BIOS does not set up the M-I/O card serial ports correctly but the serial port on the separate Ser/Par card works. Now I have one Serial port and two Parallel ports. I don’t know if the game port will work. I should be able to use the parallel port from the Ser/Par card for Laplink or a PPP packet driver emulator. I did not attempt to install a sound card yet. The only ISA sound card I have left is an IBM Wave card. Maybe I’ll play with that later. For now I reassembled the CD-ROM, Hard Drive and a single Floppy Drive and am ready to finish setting up the software. I don’t have any front panels for the Hard Drive and Floppy Drive, so they remain open above the CD-ROM.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2K8Zs_URmxfopw87KEs8CrzxR-OgFF1T1MsZxYYFthbcA8RHkofa9oLFx-3iBdK9retxvB2pi4hXj1ljhWF1F84Imbh7kJlpvGxi2RzWkq1LURzhIks5oDSmJDGeB3RUfTV7-imBF2BENDWGMuG_cSr3IGgfKx2m7yP_SyiW0D-HhaKFdT0Af9buWOQ/s3264/IMG_20220428_221433799.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2K8Zs_URmxfopw87KEs8CrzxR-OgFF1T1MsZxYYFthbcA8RHkofa9oLFx-3iBdK9retxvB2pi4hXj1ljhWF1F84Imbh7kJlpvGxi2RzWkq1LURzhIks5oDSmJDGeB3RUfTV7-imBF2BENDWGMuG_cSr3IGgfKx2m7yP_SyiW0D-HhaKFdT0Af9buWOQ/s320/IMG_20220428_221433799.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ByWtTIWEdPEM3_nn8-j3BIjLy48M7k4_hTl7b9a4DtoMu2Xhgi1mDd-vADC-6iZ8AAdtRPrFt_Orx2olmOAuWEJ4mC0w3xfUwsKZJsjYFkJoLtom6eesC3xytkiB9CSMbHDWrso_ooySIUsQ9Z1PD-_HOrZc_9-c0Xs1rbBrMDQnklMP0Ibh-PeYww/s3264/IMG_20220428_221445422.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ByWtTIWEdPEM3_nn8-j3BIjLy48M7k4_hTl7b9a4DtoMu2Xhgi1mDd-vADC-6iZ8AAdtRPrFt_Orx2olmOAuWEJ4mC0w3xfUwsKZJsjYFkJoLtom6eesC3xytkiB9CSMbHDWrso_ooySIUsQ9Z1PD-_HOrZc_9-c0Xs1rbBrMDQnklMP0Ibh-PeYww/s320/IMG_20220428_221445422.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s what I have setup so far:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The BIOS is set with a single 1.44M floppy drive and a single hard drive as type 98. This is a Connor Model CFS540A with 540MB on 1050 Cyl, 16 Hds, 63 Sec. The CD-ROM is attached to the same ribbon cable as the hard drive and set as “Slave”. The hard drive is set as “Master”.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Floppy interface on the motherboard is disabled. The Hard Disk interface on the motherboard is enabled. The serial and parallel ports on the motherboard are disabled. The only motherboard header being used is for the hard drive/CD-ROM.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have a Multi-I/O card installed in the 16-bit slot closest to the drives. The IDE/Hard Drive is disabled. The floppy controller is on automatically. The parallel and game ports are enabled. Com1/3 is disabled. Com2/4 is also disabled. This M-I/O controls the floppies, game port and one parallel port.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have another Serial/Parallel card in the 8-bit slot. This card controls one serial port (COM1) and one Parallel port (LPT1).</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Review:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One 1.44 Floppy Drive (on the Multi-I/O card)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One 504Mb IDE Hard Drive (on the motherboard IDE header)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One CD-ROM (on the motherboard IDE header)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One Serial Port on COM1 (on 8-bit card) with Serial Mouse</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One Parallel Port on LPT1 (on 8-bit card)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One Parallel Port on LPT2 (on Multi-I/O card)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One Game Port (on Multi-I/O card)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MS-DOS 5.0 on hard drive with Windows 3.1 added.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CuteMouse loads serial mouse in Autoexec.bat.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OK, I installed the MWave ISA card and it works. It includes a modem and fax but I think I am having some conflicts with the serial port. I’ll have to troubleshoot later. The sound works.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also do not have a working CD-ROM. I think I need to install the CD-ROM drivers in Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files. I need to look up how to do that. I have a Windows 95 boot disk that usually works for this. I can copy over the drivers and batch files and give it a try.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I got a little bit of result by using the Win95 setup as a guide. The MSCDEX.EXE program loads the CD-ROM and I got one DIR readout in DOS. But in Windows it just crashes. I probably need an actual driver for the CD-ROM. I’ll have to track down some drivers for Win 3.1 for some of the models I have in my stash. Welcome back to the joys of drivers in DOS/WIN31.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The OAKCDROM.SYS does work in DOS and I was able to get a directory listing without crashing in Windows. But still no Audio CD in the Ace software. I’m thinking it may be expecting the CD-ROM to be connected to the card. There is an IDE port. I need to try that. I don’t know how to set it up. Will it just be recognized? Or do I need a special port number, etc?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I sorted it out. The CD-ROM does not need to be connected to the ACE5000 card. It works fine being connected the way it is (on same ribbon cable as hard drive). The problem was that Windows 3.1 did not have the CD-AUDIO driver installed. There is a file named MCICDA.DR_ on the installation floppies and that is the compressed CD-Audio driver. It was not installed when I originally installed Windows because I did not have a CD-ROM loaded in DOS at the time I was installing. I ran the driver installer in the Windows Control Panel and added the CD-Audio driver and rebooted. It worked! The CD-ROM now plays Audio CD’s.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ACE5000 Mwave board is supposed to emulate Ad-lib and Soundblaster. I will test some games next. But I do now have standard Windows sounds and CD-Audio. I don’t think I will test the Modem/Fax stuff since I don’t need that stuff for this computer to communicate. I can use Laplink on the Parallel port. But I am curious if I need a soundblaster card to enjoy games on this machine. It was a business machine and meant for an office environment. I will test it with some office software and a printer. I will also test a DOS CD-Player. Maybe I can set up a DOS only office environment. (Not sure if DOS will support listening to a CD at the same time as running Quatro Pro. Is there a CD TSR?)</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><br /><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-10665904854564696152017-06-24T13:42:00.001-07:002017-06-24T13:42:49.587-07:00<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Installing antiX on
store computer</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
We have and old
Pentium 4 machine that we use in the office for streaming music from
AccuRadio. This box used to run Windows XP SP3 but I didn’t want to
keep using XP due to some security concerns. So, I installed Xubuntu
16.04 as a dual boot with XP and set Xubuntu as the default system to
boot upon power-up.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
AccuRadio uses a lot
of flash for their advertisements on screen. With Seamonkey as our
browser this worked most of the time with Xubuntu. And the computer
has 1.25 MB of ram so the system runs reasonably well - especially
since all we use this computer for is streaming internet radio. But
every once in a while the system would lock up and I would have to
reboot and restart the OS, browser, etc. I attributed the troubles to
the use of Flash. It works most of the time but it’s annoying when
it lock ups while our store is open and we want to have the music
playing.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, I decided to try
antiX 16.1 as an alternative OS. I had good luck with antiX on
several older computers in my lab at home so I figured I would try it
at the store to see if it behaves any better than Xubuntu for
AccuRadio and their use of Flash. But the system has to be user
friendly and look reasonably similar to Windows since the staff at
the store is not very computer savvey and does not know Linux at all.
Could I set up antiX and make it easy enough to launch AccuRadio?</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
AntiX tends to be
pretty “geeky” in general. There is usually lots of setup that
needs to be done to make it look and work similar to Windows. But for
this computer we really only need to be able to launch AccuRadio in
the web browser. No need to set up a full system of menus for
anything else. So, I chose to install the “Full” version of antiX
16.1 and used the default “Rox-IceWM” window manager. This gives
me the familiar “taskbar” and “Start Menu” look of Windows.
But after the install and first login I got a screen resolution of
640x350. This just won’t do. We need a resolution of 1280x1024 to
match the LCD screen attached to this machine.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I used the Control
Center app to reset the resolution to 1280x1024. This worked, kind
of. The resolution was reset but when I logged out and rebooted, on
login the resolution was back to 640x350. Hmm. How do I set the
resolution permanently?</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I took to google and
read lots of stuff. I learned that i could use a command directly to
reset the resolution using the terminal. I entered “xrandr -s
1280x1024”. That again reset the resolution but it did not stay
that way permanently. I further learned that i could enter this
command in a “startup” file and it would run automatically after
a logoff/login. I followed some directions I read on the forum where
it said to put this startup in my /home/user/desktop-session/startup
file. I did that and rebooted. It did not work.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And here is where it
always gets difficult with using Linux in the business. In the
business everything has to just work. If my users can’t just click
and get something familiar to happen they won’t use the computer.
And if the screen looks different than they are used to they will not
be able to proceed. They will not be able to figure out what is going
on. So, if I am going to use a linux distribution on a business
computer I need to be able to successfully set it up to look like the
same system they have always used. If that is too difficult for me i
won’t do it. If I can’t figure out how to set it up so that it
doesn’t crash or look differently I won’t use it.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
For me, the Xubuntu
system is easy. It is very similar to windows and it tends to just
work. It’s not too different from my Windows systems. But antiX
does things differently and the setup and configuration is not as
easy. Things happen that I don’t expect and I get lost and do not
understand what is happening. It can take me hours to figure it out.
This is not good when I am in the store and I have other work to do.
It’s fine for my lab and hobby at home. I can take my time and
figure it out. Or, I can just stop and do something else. And I don’t
need to have everything nicely laid out for me on screen. I can find
things and launch applications without pretty icons and menus. I can
even use the command line. But my staff at work is not that flexible.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, here i am trying
to figure out why the screen resolution is wonky and I am getting
lost and wondering if I am going to be successful with antiX. Maybe
I’ll have to go back to Xubuntu. So I read some more on google and
found out that I need to use the startup file in the “iceWM”
setup files, not my /home directory as I had previously read. I found
the IceWM setup files using the Control Center and this time after I
rebooted I had a proper 1280x1024 screen resolution on startup.
Great! But then I opened the Control Center again and the dialog and
fonts were HUGE! I opened the ROXTerm terminal and the same thing.
Everything is huge!
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Back to google to do
some more reading. I learn that the problem is the wrong DPI setting.
But I can’t find anything in antiX to set the DPI. I stumbled
across a post where someone mentioned using “xrandr” and
“xdpyinfo”. I figured out that I could use xrandr to reset the
DPI with another startup file command. I put a second line in the
iceWM startup file that read “xrandr --dpi 96”. I rebooted and
now I have my desktop looking normal again. But it took lots of
reading on google, most of it outside of the antiX documentation, to
figure this out. But I got it fixed and now I am thinking I can use
antiX on this machine after all.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I still don’t know
why, in antiX, the resolution does not setup right to begin with and
why changing the resolution with xrandr causes the DPI to go haywire.
But I’m sure the geeks who work with linux all the time understand
why. And why it works in Xubuntu but not antiX? All I know is that
antiX is harder to setup than Xubuntu. But it runs better. It uses
less memory and it seems to behave. From the user’s perspective
it’s snappy and responsive. And that’s why I wanted to try it on
this machine in the office. It’s the best Linux I have used for
older computers like this Pentium 4.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But I’m not done
yet. I have to make it easy to launch the browser and open AccuRadio
and it has to work just like it does on the Windows computers. So, I
need to add a desktop icon that says “AccuRadio” and that, when
clicked, opens the AccuRadio website.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fortunately for me
the sound works just fine. Once I opened the browser and launched
AccuRadio, the sound came through the stereo just like normal. All I
have to do now is create the desktop icon.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As it turns out,
this is another area that is harder on antiX than on Windows or
Xubuntu. AntiX does not use a desktop environment but instead uses
file managers and windows managers. The default windows manager is
IceWM and the file manager is ROX-Filer. It’s not as easy as
right-clicking on the desktop, or dragging and dropping from a menu,
to add a launcher. But I figured it out.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The first thing I
did was made sure I had SeaMonkey and the Flash Plugin installed and
on the menus. I like to use SeaMonkey instead of Firefox since it is
better on memory use. I used Synaptic to install both SeaMonkey and
Flash Plugin. Once that was done I was able to use ROX-Filer to
create a desktop icon, or launcher, to easily start the SeaMonkey
browser.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I right-clicked on
the existing desktop icon for the ROX-Filer program and selected “New
- Desktop Application”. A list of installed programs pops up and I
chose SeaMonkey, then renamed the icon as “AccuRadio”. Now, when
clicking on this icon the SeaMonkey browser is launched. I set
AccuRadio as the default home page. The end result is an easy way to
start the music streaming service from the desktop. Very similar to
our Windows machines.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, while not as
easy as dragging an icon from the menu onto the desktop, it was not
too hard. I just had to learn that antiX does not use a desktop
environment system and instead uses the ROX-Filer file manager to
launch from desktop icons.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The last thing I had
to do was change the wallpaper to something that looks nicer than the
default used in antiX. I figured out that I could use any image file
saved to my /home/Pictures folder. So, I downloaded a nice picture
and then used the Control Center to select a new wallpaper from a
file. Once applied it stuck. The screen now looks very much like our
Windows machines and it is easy to launch the AccuRadio website.
Mission accomplished.</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hopefully, antiX
will not crash as often as the Xubuntu system. So far it seems to be
handling the Flash stuff just fine. But, time will tell.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The specs for this
machine are:</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hewlett Packard HP
d220 MT</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Pentium 4 2.6Mhz</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Intel 82845G
Integrated Graphics</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Intel 82801DB AC’97
Audio</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Broadcom BCM4401
Ethernet</div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
80GB Hard Drive</div>
<br />
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1.25 GB RAM</div>
Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-11483046363763696082017-06-24T13:33:00.002-07:002017-06-24T13:33:24.651-07:00Wow! Has it been a year already? Well, as I said, this is not my day job. It's just a hobby. Guess I've been too busy with my hearth business to keep up with this Old Computers blog. But I have been working in my lab and having some fun resurrecting some old computers. My most recent project was to see if i could get Linux to run on some old Pentium 1 systems. I wanted to see how low I could go.<br />
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I will be following up with more on that project in another post. For now I'll just say that I am continuing this learning project and I am getting closer to producing some pictures and videos to help document my collection. I am not naturally comfortable with video creation so it is taking me some time to learn how this technology works. But I am now working through some you-tube tutorials and practicing so I can learn how to make decent you-tube videos.<br />
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I've started by taking pictures of my project to put Linux on an old Pentium 150 laptop. I am using that project as my learning tool and hope to have a nice video done to share here. As it turns out it is possible to put a modern Linux on that machine but it is best as a Text Only system. There are several good console programs that are useful. But for a graphical user interface it is better on Windows 98. At least it is for me, a Linux hobbyist. I'm not a Linux expert so my results with such old equipment is not really what I would call a usable system. But as an experiment it is fun. And I am multi-booting using DOS 5, Windows 98SE, and Linux (in Debian and Slackware flavors).<br />
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My goal for this blog is be able to contribute to the historical documentation of computers from my generation. I once thought I could help connect people with less means to less-expensive used computers. But computer technology has changed so much in recent years that it is no longer practical to use an old used computer for general home or small office computing. For general home use it now makes more sense to buy an inexpensive laptop and wifi printer. For small business use it makes sense to spend a little more for a current desktop computer and a shared wifi printer.<br />
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Old computers can still be useful though in some situations. My own situation is one such example. I am glad to explore the historical value and capabilities of old computers as a hobby and pass that knowledge on to the community. Other examples of situations where old computers can be useful are as as backup systems, as file servers, or job-specific devices, such as streaming music for an office. There are also several applications where old computers are still being used as controllers for old purpose-built tools and machines.<br />
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Retro gaming is also an excellent application for old computers. Many old computer games run best when running on the hardware that was current when the game was produced. Simulation or emulation is not always the best experience for certain segments of the gamer's community. To be able to get their hands on original equipment can make all the difference to their ultimate experience.<br />
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Okay, that's all for now. I'll try to catch up and post more to this blog in the coming months. Until then, remember, you will soon own an "old computer".Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99245881722881790.post-86845795575678531712016-06-22T07:57:00.004-07:002016-06-22T09:43:42.844-07:00My Computer Hobby<p dir="ltr">My Computer Hobby </p>
<p dir="ltr">While my main focus over the years has been on my stove and fireplace career, I've maintained a hobby in computers since about 1987. My interest in computers was piqued in about 1979 while in school. One of my classes was about computers and I learned to type in programs on a Commodore PET. After I married in 1987 I started using computers as a business tool and eventually became the "IT" department for our local small business.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Over the years, as we have upgraded our computer systems I have retained the old systems and otherwise procured many other computers that have been cast off as obsolete. I picked up a few "vintage" computers along the way and now have many systems that are now considered either vintage PC's or good for retro computing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Some of our family friends and customers know I am interested in computers and occasionally drop off their ailing systems to me in hopes that I can fix whatever is wrong. I maintain a small computer lab at home where I experiment and learn new things about all these "old" machines. This remains a hobby for me and i do not generally advertise my computer skills to the public. My "day job" keeps me busy and remains my primary focus (The Cracker Mill Hearth is our family business). But recently I have become more interested in joining the growing community of vintage and retro computer enthusiasts world wide. After some 30 plus years tinkering with computers I have some historical perspective that may be of interest to some of the younger folks.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So now, starting in 2016, I intend to share more of this hobby on the internet using blogs, youtube, and websites. Of course, I have to learn more about how to do all of this. I figured I would start here, in a blog, since I have always been good at writing. I will attempt to document my experience and what I am learning as I go along. There are already many fine outlets for learning about these old computers and computer history in general. I only hope to add my own collection and history to the already established library associated with this hobby.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Sean</p>
Sean Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01243178380827560591noreply@blogger.com0