DOS 6.22 and some old Desktop

1) Trigem 2199 Mainboard
2) Intel Pentium 166MHz CPU
3) 2x 16MB EDO 60ns (Tin)
4) Conner CFS 635A 635MB IDE-AT (www.seagate.com?)
5) TEAC FD-235HF 3.5" 720k/1.4M FDD
5.5) Mozart audio board (OTI605)
6) PCI Trident TGUI9660XGi/TGUI9680XGi Integrated but I've disabled it and installed a Hercules Terminator 3D/TX 4MB PCI VGA Video adapter
7) I've also installed a SMC 1208BT PCI NIC (10/100)

I've recently selected to walk the road of software nostalgia...

I got my hands on an old desktop PC that I intend to use for this trip of mine. Didn't take long before my first problem though (im not taking into account the fact that I had to use my saw on the cabinet to fit an old CD-ROM).

When booting from the first DOS 6.22 floppy I get an error stating that the command.com is invalid. I've tried 3 different floppy drives and several different floppy disks (including formating each several times). I've changed the floppy cable, pulled out the secondary IDE cable (disabling the CD-Rom), changed Harddrives (Problem #2; how do i get the BIOS to accept more than 8GB?), cursing and even shorting my main computer in the process.

Now, Im wondering what might be the faulty component here... me or some of the hardware for sure but witch?

Help?

 

By the way, anyone know where to find a new BIOS for this MB? I have version 1.12 (AMI)...

... I forgot to mention that it's originally an Olivetty Personal Computers PC (Educator P/90 PCS)...

 

Boy,doesn't Olivetti brings back some memories. Doubt whether you will get a new BIOS or if you accept an 8 gig hard drive. Remember you are using an old PC and limit yourself to the standard of specs that applied then. As for command.com, check google for command.com + Olivetti. Maybe specify the model of Olivetti in the search. I can't remember if the version they used was the MS standard command.com or not. Sorry I can't be of more help but too much time has gone by since I used an Olivetti. Bazza

PS: Maybe try Olivetti's home site, if they have one. I doubt if they will acknowledge they ever made PC's. Baz

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I've found that if it says that Command.com is invalid and it asks for a location of command.com, then something may have corrupted it on the floppy. If possible, try to find another computer and copy it's command.com over to the floppy. That may fix that.

I found a BIOS upgrade for the computer model, but not for the mainboard. I'm not familiar with that company, so I must say that there is a risk of messing up the motherboard and not having it work at all. I've found that usually driverguide.com is a good place for drivers, but they require a free registration. There are several other sites that say they have it as well. Here's driverguides: http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=1163 or try some of the other hits from Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ti+Personal+Computer+P90+PCS+bios&btnG=Search

 

Are you always using the same source files when making the floppies? It sounds like the command.com is corrupt at the source. Perhaps try to find another floppy image somewhere.

Can't help you with the new BIOS download, but even the latest for that era mobo likely won't recognize more than 8GB. I ran into the same issue once before. In my case, I was dual booting with Win2k, and once I began the Win2k install, it recognized the unformatted space independant of the BIOS & allowed me to format it as FAT, which my other O/S was then able to see afterwards. Perhaps you could do the same in another computer first, then install the DOS.

Oh, don't forget, only make the C:\ drive 2Gb or less...DOS won't recognize it if you make it larger.

 

Bumped into an old friend yesterday and he reminded me of OnTrack Disk Manager. We used to use this in the "olde" days to runner bigger drives on old PC's

Check out link

http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=ISO-8859-1&as_qdr=all&q=ontrack+%22disk+manager%22&btnG=Search&lr=lang_en

for info about OnTrack. Don't know if it will go as far as 8 gig though. Check it out before buying it. Bazza

 

The mainboard itself is supposed to have support for these OS's.

SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY
DR-DOS, version 7.00
IBM PC-DOS, version 6.1
IBM OS/2, versions 2.11 *
IBM OS/2 Warp, version 3.0
MS-DOS, versions 5.0* / 6.00 / 6.22
SCO UNIX O.D.T., release 3.0
SOLARIS, version 2.4

WINDOWS
MS-WINDOWS, version 3.1
MS-WINDOWS for WORKGROUPS, ver. 3.11
WINDOWS NT, version 3.5

I've tried booting with MS-DOS version 6.22 without any luck.

I just found a web page on the net that lets you download boot disks from dos 6.22 and up. I'm in the process of testing these atm. (http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml)

Now, I've settled for the original Connor 700MB disk - should eliminate som problems. I'm only gonna run win 3.11 at most + som old DOS apps. Maybe I'll stretch it to an installation of FreeDOS...

Wavetar, noahawk, I've thought of that too. Double checked it by booting from it with my "main" PC. Worked fine... actually it still does

 

Does the computer boot from a DOS6.22 bootdisk & then work properly? If so, you can simpy copy the boot files from the disk to the hard drive & you'll have a "DOS6.22 lite" type of operating system. You need to use the attrib command to change the 'hidden' and 'system' attributes of "IO.sys", "MSDOS.sys" and "CONFIG.sys" to allow them to copy from the floppy onto the HD, then use it again to change them back once on the HD, but it works. I've done it myself a few times. It allows you to skip the installation process, which obviously isn't working for you. For more info on how to use the attrib command, see here:

http://www.computerhope.com/attribhl.htm

For the boot disk, go to www.bootdisk.com

 

Well, the problem is all about not being able to boot from floppies. If I could actually boot from a floppy there wouldnt be any problems

Until now I've tried booting from different OS bootable floppies...

1) MS DOS 6.22: Invalid command.com
2) MS Windows 95 & 95a: It hangs after detecting the CD-Rom, when it's supposed to scan the PCI bus...
3) MS Windows 95b (OSR2): Invalid command.com
4) MS Windows 98 & 98SE: Invalid command.com
5) MS Windows ME: It hangs after detecting the CD-Rom, when it's supposed to scan the PCI bus...
6) FreeDOS BETA 9: "Remove discs or other media. Press any key to reboot." Isn't that interesting?
7) IBM Secure Data Disposal Boot Diskette (I actually had to download about 41MB of crap to get this floppy made): It's a PC DOS 7.0 hybrid used to "dispose" of data on HDs. The PC actually booted, though in a way that made it difficult to do anything except erase all the data on my HD. Im still investigating this though.

Now Im looking for a pure PC DOS 7.0 boot floppy. These are kinda hard to find out there since they are still sold commercially.

At the moment I'm building a floppy disk set with DRDOS v7.03... Lets se how that works...

PS! www.bootdisk.com... Nice link!!

 

Ahh, I see, I thought you were actually trying to do the full install of DOS 6.22 from the 3 install floppies, since you said "When booting from the first DOS 6.22 floppy" in the original post.

It really sounds like you have a MOBO problem, although I can't say what it is. Perhaps try using an earlier version of DOS, like 5.0 available on bootdisk.com, or even much earlier versions here:

http://www.oldfiles.streamlinetrial.co.uk/powerload/bootdisk.htm

 

I think I've found the source of the problem (though not solved it yet).

It seems to me that the MB does not detect the HD correctly. It basically detects it, but the values (Zones, heads etc) seems to be a bit off. I'll have to research this a bit...

PS! When I disconnect the HD it actually boots from the floppy.