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Compaq Deskpro 386/20

antiquekid3 said:
Hrm. I'll try running it on my XP machine later too. Do you think the .zip archive could have caused any corruptions? Is it possible to upload the .exe directly? I don't think an .exe would go through email too well due to all of the virus scanners and such.

I'll add that line of code later too. Could I add a line of code to configure the 1.2MB 5.25" drive?
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be any corruption in the ZIP archive; I executed SETUP right out of it. If the file passes the ZIP test without errors, it's intact.

You shouldn't need a line if your 1.2M 5.25" drive is the A: drive, as it seems to default to that.
 
Very strange. I wonder why it doesn't run in DOS on my main machine.

So you're saying the A: drive is defaulted to 1.2MB 5.25", and that if the 1.44MB drive is plugged in as the A: drive, it can still read/write HD disks?

Can my Panasonic drive read/write 360K floppies? And what makes a 360K floppy different from a 1.2MB one? Is it physical like a 720K vs. 1.44MB 3.5" diskette?

Kyle
 
Chuck, that SETUP.EXE file you posted still doesn't work even on my XP machine. It says that the packed file is corrupt, as it did in DOS 6.22. What might be the problem? I unzipped it using Window's unarchiver program. I'll try unzipping it on my Mac and copying that over just in case that could be the problem.

Kyle
 
Chuck, I'm trying it again on XP and it still says it's corrupt. It does say that it's 80,796 bytes long though. I used my Mac to unzip it and copied it over to my PC.

Could you send me a text file of the 0s and 1s that make up the .EXE? :)

Kyle
 
How much we've forgotten. Does "LOADFIX" ring a bell, Mike?

On XP, try running "LOADFIX SETUP.EXE". On the the XP system that I ran it on, I have a huge environment, which pushes the load above the first (virtual) 64K. On a stock XP system, though, that's not true. But LOADFIX cures that problem. Old, and I mean really old bug in EXEPACK.

Kyle, I can make a 1.44MB bootable setup disk for your Compaq. Just let me get through coffee first...
 
I ran the "loadfix setup.exe" like you said to, and it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I can hear the drive seeking constantly, but nothing comes up on the screen. I waited for almost five minutes before ejecting the disk.

Also, another weird thing is going on. I scrounged around for a Windows 95 boot disk, which allows the computer to boot just fine. However, when I go to format a 5.25" disk in my B: drive, it says "Invalid Media or Track 0 Bad - Disk Unusable." I researched that and it appears to be a Windows 95 problem. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196579

Then I made a boot disk from DOS 6.22. When I try and boot to it, it only gets as far as saying "Starting MS-DOS..." What's going on with that?

Chuck, might it be possible to make a bootable setup disk, copy the contents of it to a .dmg, and then let me copy those to a disk? Thanks!

Kyle
 
Chuck(G) said:
Kyle, Here's a self-extracting executable 1.44MB boot. Just unzip it and execute it on your Windoze box--it'll extract a bootable disk to your first (usually A:) 1.44M diskette drive. I tried the boot disk on 2 386 boxes and 2 486 boxes as well as mixture of later boxes and it boots fine.

Let me know...
Click to expand...

I created the boot disk from your file and it works fine on my Compaq 386s/16.

I forgot that Windows XP and Windows 7 won't format a 720K disk,.
 
It sounds like this computer has some problems then. I put the disk in the machine and turned it on, and here's what I get:
Code: 
GRiD Systems MS-DOS BIOS Ver 3.30     06/01/89
Copyright (C) 1988 GRiD Systems Corporation

I've waited for several minutes and it never gets past this screen.

Kyle
 
Try disconnecting the hard disk. (Little known DOS fact: A corrupted hard disk boot sector can hang a system on boot). While you're at it, remove any other cards that aren't strictly necessary. While you're at it, delete the AUTOEXEC.BAT file from your boot disk.
 
Okay, the HDD controller is disconnected. The only three cards in the machine are the FDD controller, the video card, and the RAM card. I also tried removing the battery just to see if it'd do something different. It still never gets past that copyright screen.

Kyle
 
Did you delete the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the disk? (It just runs ARSTART). Failing everything else, we can try to see if we can simply write the configuration CMOS directly, rather than using a setup utility.
 
No I didn't. If I boot with that Windows 95 boot disk (which seems to work just fine) and then insert the setup disk and run ARSTART.EXE, it says that I have the incorrect version of DOS.

Should I delete the AUTOEXEC.BAT file?

Kyle
 
Oh, and after telling me about the incorrect DOS version, it takes me to the Compaq screen where I can choose the three options (setup, verify, and test, or something like that). However, when I choose one, it takes me to a loading screen and then right back to the prompt for which program to choose.

Kyle

P.S. Surely none of this would boil down to having an incorrect video card, right? That's one of the few things that seems different from my Compaq to my Windows/DOS machine. Could a video card (even though it seems to be working fine) cause a system hangup at boot?
 
Can't be too big a problem if it boots properly with that W95 disk.

I got lost somewhere along the way:
What type of drives are where and what format are these diskettes in?
Are you using the dual drive?
Is the bootable W95 disk different somehow from the others that you're trying?
Which drive light(s) come on and when?
 
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