Oldie - 3com Will Not Install In Nt4

Hello world

My 1st post here...bringing some PCs that have been in storage back to life...maybe my career too as retirement is somewhat boring, technically at least. For some background I used to be a top-notch Network Engineer, was in computers and networks from the 80's, worked at Leading Edge too debugging 386 system boards with a 1241 logic analyzer, Why we didn't just replace them with new system boards is beyond me. One great thing that came out of LE was, believe it or not, NUTSHELL. The best database ever IMHO. I still use it. Also, I used to have all the certs - CCNA 2x, MCSE, FORE ATM, all the Netware certs they made, CCIE written...probably forgot some...I guess all this means that replies like "do you have Caps lock on" or "have you tried rebooting' won't help much

So, here goes -

- old gateway (I loath them) 2000
- pnp-capable AMI bios
- 3c509 in isa slot (I have the same prob in a Micron with a PCI 3c905)
- is booting nts40 with all the SPs
- can boot via cd but no A drive

I think the issue is I cannot get (and keep) the 509 OUT of pnp mode.
NT will not see/use it.
When the bios is displaying what it finds at bios-boot, it says "3c509 ether-iii in pnp mode"
3c5x9cfg will not work as it doesn't see it.
That means I am not sure what the IO or Int setting are at.
Tried pnpdsabl - does not work as the 2nd line in the .bat file fails, cannot see card.
I've tried setting the bios-pnp to ICU or SETUP neither seem to help.
I've tried disabling the pnpapi (or ? forgot) in NT Services to Manual/Off
I've removed the NIC from the NT cfg.
It seems this would be good enough to be almost booting from DOS.

I realize the help files FAQ say to boot from DOS and then run 3c5x9cfg but I have not found a minimum OS to boot from CD yet.

I'n trying to find a way to boot a cd, then run the 3c5x9cfg program but have not figured out how yet. I've tried UBCD to no avail.

Next step is to create a DOS401 boot cd with the iso...

 

Have you tried using this option.
http://techgenix.com/nt4netin/

https://www.techrepublic.com/forums/discussions/teaming-3com-network-cards-in-nt4/

 

Yes, but, the PC only has a CD and HDD, no floppy to boot from...and I don't want to disable one PC to try and fix another. I WANT to boot from CD ! It seems I must in order to fix 3 machines I have here.

Latest news - I made a boot cd with DOS401 but after I boot, I cannot put another cd in that same PC and run a program (3c5x9cfg.exe) from that CD. I need a CD to boot JUST LIKE a floppy, or I need to boot a CD WITH the the 3c5x9cfg.exe on it. I can't seem to add to the DOS401 boot cd I made. Why can't the bootable-ISO only take up enough space to boot like a 3.5" ? Not rocket science I wouldn't think but...

I remember when Plug and Pray came out...we all hated it then too but by that tiem I was already 'moved' into Networking and left the PCs to other new hires.

So, I need a bootable cd with 3c5x9cfg.exe on it.

More generally, I need a way to make a bootbale cd also with files I want on it.

 

Ok, I used IMGBURN to originally burn the DOS401 bootable cd, and that worked. That cd booted and I could do a DIR on what it called the A Drive and got 4 files.

But I could not figure out how to add files to the original ISO and then reburn, with IMGBURN, so I used PowerISO. And I figured out how to add files...or at least I thought I did. When I looked at the CD after burning with the extra file, it had the 1 extra file (3c5x9cfg.exe) that I needed, along with the 4 DOS files, 1 hidden maybe.
So I boot from the CD and presto, instant disappearing file. It boots as A, so I do a DIR there and get the original 4 files. It seems the original ISO's FAT cant be added to ? It can't recognize new files it seems.

 

All I need is a cd that will boot like a floppy. Seems to me if the BIOS supports booting from a CD, as it does a floppy, then I should be able to make a cd that acts exactly like a floppy. In the old days, we needed drivers to use a cdrom, but, now the BIOS supports cd functions as it can boot from it...same deal as a floppy.

If there truly isn't a program to allow one to simulate a floppy with a cd, maybe somebody needs to write one ?

 

Floppy Disks use the FAT file system.
CDs use CDFS (Compact Disk File System aka ISO 9660).

 

Here is some info that might help.
https://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1814
http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/floppy_image_on_cd.htm

 

Ok, I'm reading them, have read most, but, I still say the exact same thing...

The BIOS has the code to allow a PC to boot from CD...we know this.
The BIOS also has the code to allow a PC to boot from floppy.
The BIOS also has the code to allow a boot from HDD.
That the CD has a different file system is somewhat meaningless IMHO as the BIOS can boot from either. Actually, if a PC had BIOS big enough, we could boot XP or Linux or any other OS from it...no problem, it's all code, stored somewhere. In the past, BIOS or EEPROM or FLash or whatever you want to call burnable memory, has been too small to bother with any more than the POST code, and then hand off control to the next place where the CPU will get instructions. Nowadays, no reason "things can't be done."

After POST, the BIOS 'directs' execution of the CPU to a specific part of a floppy/cd/hdd, and that device boots. It's all just instructions. That device does what it wants. If the cd wanted to be FAT or NTFS, or CDFS, it doesn't matter, it's all just code, 1's and 0's really. The CD Hardware will to what we tell it to do. If we tell it to read starting at point-a, it will. If the code tells the CPU to make the speaker play Beethoven it will. It doesn't matter where the code comes from.

I still say, there is no reason a CD cannot be made to act JUST like a floppy. Any differences in file system or dir structure etc is all up to us. The issue is, if we need to be able to copy .exe's and so on, then we need to follow certain guidelines as to exe structure, but there is no reason a CD cannot act like a floppy IMHO.

I think the days of (DOS or W95 or ?) where the CD is 'untouchable' until the CD device driver is loaded are over, or very well should be. The BIOS >CAN< and does boot from CD...That's the important point. After that, all differences are up to the programmer. A CD can have whatever file system WE want on it. It's all just 1's and 0's and it's up to the programmer or program to interpret these correctly.

NO reason a CD cannot act like a floppy. One is optical one is magnetic, that's all.

And, there is NO reason a PC cannot boot into a full-OS like XP (that's been cfg'd for the HW on that particular PC) directly from a CD. The entire OS can be on a CD. A cd can hold plenty of information. A cd is bootable, just like a HDD. What can a cd hold now ? 1GB ? Plenty of room for XP. The issue would be CD access and data transfer speeds, but it's entirely possible.

No reason a CD can't act like a floppy.

 

It does matter.
And no, we can't have any file system on a CD (or DVD).

Why doesn't Windows To Go run from a DVD?

 

I suppose we need to keep booting from a 5.25" floppy disk too huh ?

So you're saying we can boot from a HDD, read a CD or floppy, or whatever else, but, when we boot from a CD, we can't read a HDD or floppy ?

A CD is MEDIA, and that's all. What we put on it is up to us. The firmware (HW and SW) of the CD drive is the only limiting factor. If the CD can't write a 1 or a 0 where we want it, then it's junk.

Way back when, CDs were new and couldn't even write to a blank cd, couldn't be re-written, couldn't be viewable w/o a special driver loaded, driver couldn't do this, couldn't do that. Not any more.

If a PC can boot to a CD, then it can do anything. All it is is code to run. A CD is not just readable media anymore.