Lock-in puzzle

  • Thread starter Thread starter meow2222
  • Start date Start date
M

meow2222

Hi

I'm trying to get an old notebook pc running again. Its a low spec
machine, but is plenty for what little I'm going to do with it, which
is little more than text editing.

It has no floppy, the cdrom doesnt, no network socket, no usb and no
modem. So its a bit isolated from the outside world atm.

I can start win-dos in safe mode only, it cant boot up in normal win
mode (general protection fault). Win is messed and just needs a
reinstall, easy enough normally. Win setup files are on the machine.

BUT here comes the logic puzzle:
Win setup wont run from safe mode
Win normal wont boot
I cant get safe mode to reboot into dos
I cant use a floppy or cd to boot it

So it seems to be locked in, no way to get it to run setup. Any smart
ideas??

If all else fails I'll get an adaptor and get it going in a desktop.
However this is not a trouble free option, so would rather find an
easier way if it exists.


thanks, NT
 
[email protected] said:
Hi

I'm trying to get an old notebook pc running again. Its a low spec
machine, but is plenty for what little I'm going to do with it, which
is little more than text editing.

It has no floppy, the cdrom doesnt, no network socket, no usb and no
modem. So its a bit isolated from the outside world atm.

I can start win-dos in safe mode only, it cant boot up in normal win
mode (general protection fault). Win is messed and just needs a
reinstall, easy enough normally. Win setup files are on the machine.

BUT here comes the logic puzzle:
Win setup wont run from safe mode
Win normal wont boot
I cant get safe mode to reboot into dos
I cant use a floppy or cd to boot it

So it seems to be locked in, no way to get it to run setup. Any smart
ideas??

If all else fails I'll get an adaptor and get it going in a desktop.
However this is not a trouble free option, so would rather find an
easier way if it exists.


thanks, NT
Click to expand...


Does it has an ps/2 or DIN Connector if it has u can get a ps/2 to USB
adapter and use an external cd rom which will allow u to boot from Cd
Rom/
 
[email protected] said:
Hi

I'm trying to get an old notebook pc running again. Its a low spec
machine, but is plenty for what little I'm going to do with it, which
is little more than text editing.

It has no floppy, the cdrom doesnt, no network socket, no usb and no
modem. So its a bit isolated from the outside world atm.

I can start win-dos in safe mode only, it cant boot up in normal win
mode (general protection fault). Win is messed and just needs a
reinstall, easy enough normally. Win setup files are on the machine.

BUT here comes the logic puzzle:
Win setup wont run from safe mode
Win normal wont boot
I cant get safe mode to reboot into dos
I cant use a floppy or cd to boot it

So it seems to be locked in, no way to get it to run setup. Any smart
ideas??

If all else fails I'll get an adaptor and get it going in a desktop.
However this is not a trouble free option, so would rather find an
easier way if it exists.


thanks, NT
Click to expand...


Does it has an ps/2 or DIN Connector if it has u can get a ps/2 to USB
adapter and use an external cd rom which will allow u to boot from the
Cd Rom/
 
Hi

I'm trying to get an old notebook pc running again. Its a low spec
machine, but is plenty for what little I'm going to do with it, which
is little more than text editing.

It has no floppy, the cdrom doesnt, no network socket, no usb and no
modem. So its a bit isolated from the outside world atm.

I can start win-dos in safe mode only, it cant boot up in normal win
mode (general protection fault). Win is messed and just needs a
reinstall, easy enough normally. Win setup files are on the machine.

BUT here comes the logic puzzle:
Win setup wont run from safe mode
Win normal wont boot
I cant get safe mode to reboot into dos
I cant use a floppy or cd to boot it

So it seems to be locked in, no way to get it to run setup. Any smart
ideas??

If all else fails I'll get an adaptor and get it going in a desktop.
However this is not a trouble free option, so would rather find an
easier way if it exists.


thanks, NT
Click to expand...

Tap the F8 key during bootup. Then select the "command prompt only"
option from the boot menu.

- Franc Zabkar
 
Tap the F8 key during bootup. Then select the "command prompt only"
option from the boot menu.

- Franc Zabkar
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I wish though. It just boots to safe mode,
no menu ever appears. Its a faulty and heavily customised version of
95, without even the windows shell or memory manager.

Last night I was ready to bin it and get another. But this morning I
realised the solution: put hdd into a decent laptop, put whatever
software & drivers are needed on it, halfway install the OS then move
the hdd back to the dino for the hadware setup. Hopefully I'll soon
have a machine that can do text editing and upload the results online,
which is all its needed for.

Thanks for the suggestions!


NT

PS I'd not heard of usb via mouse port before, but I dont think 95a
supports usb.
 
It was common in the old days, to fdisk and format the HD with DOS (making
sure to format /S so it'll boot to DOS), then copy the WIN95 or WIN98 folder
on the CD to a folder on the HD (I usually named the folder WIN95CD.

If you have drivers you think you;ll need, copy them as well to folders on
the HD.

Boot the system to DOS on the HD, change to the folder containing the WIN95
files and run setup.exe from that folder.

This accomplishes two things.

1. Installation goes much faster than reading the files from the CD.
2. In the future if the system ever needs to access other files on the CD,
you don't need the CD, the files are right there on the HD. No more looking
for the damn CD.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I wish though. It just boots to safe mode,
no menu ever appears. Its a faulty and heavily customised version of
95, without even the windows shell or memory manager.
Click to expand...

Add the following line to the msdos.sys file in your root directory:

BootMenu=1

Or try ...

BootGUI=0

You may first need to change the attributes of the file from hidden
and/or read-only.

- Franc Zabkar
 
It was common in the old days, to fdisk and format the HD with DOS (making
sure to format /S so it'll boot to DOS), then copy the WIN95 or WIN98 folder
on the CD to a folder on the HD (I usually named the folder WIN95CD.

If you have drivers you think you;ll need, copy them as well to folders on
the HD.

Boot the system to DOS on the HD, change to the folder containing the WIN95
files and run setup.exe from that folder.

This accomplishes two things.

1. Installation goes much faster than reading the files from the CD.
2. In the future if the system ever needs to access other files on the CD,
you don't need the CD, the files are right there on the HD. No more looking
for the damn CD.
Click to expand...

Yes, standard practice for sorting out win-dos installs. This one has
been tricky though. It now runs 95 quite happily, once I fixed the not
recognising cd glitch. Just added the dos cd driver to autoexec and it
works properly.

Seems theres enough software about to run almost everything on 8M.


Thanks, NT
 
Hi

I'm trying to get an old notebook pc running again. Its a low spec
machine, but is plenty for what little I'm going to do with it, which
is little more than text editing.

It has no floppy, the cdrom doesnt, no network socket, no usb and no
modem. So its a bit isolated from the outside world atm.
Click to expand...

Clearing out I found some adaptors with 8 pin network connector on one
end and parallel or serial connector on other end. It sounds rather
unlikely, but is it poss to get it running a network connection with
one of these? If so, how?

thanks, NT
 
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