• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

NEC Ready 7022 Pentium 100mhz Hard Drive issues.

The problem here is that the DDO can't even get started--the BIOS won't recognize the larger drive, period, so the BIOS can't even read in the DDO startup.

Are there any BIOS updates for this thing? Have you tried disabling 32-bit I/O and restricting transfer to PIO Mode 0? Also, try disabling LBA.
 
Last edited:
Here's my BIOS. I can't find any updates that I can just get without having to download crappy adware. Have any of you had better luck? Also, I tried messing with those settings and it still didn't work. It sucks that this is so complicated, especially because this is the original hard drive from the factory. I have slight hope that the original recovery CD will help (I just bought it off of eBay), but not too much.

IMG_4527.jpg
 
Keeping in mind that the battery is dead.....

After you run the setup and then reboot the machine (warm boot), if you then re-enter the setup, did it save the settings you previously entered or did it revert to what was there before you set it up? If it reverted without saving anything you just entered you're going to need the battery but if it saved the settings you had just entered a new battery most likely won't make any difference and you'll need to look elsewhere.
 
Stone said:
Keeping in mind that the battery is dead.....

After you run the setup and then reboot the machine (warm boot), if you then re-enter the setup, did it save the settings you previously entered or did it revert to what was there before you set it up? If it reverted without saving anything you just entered you're going to need the battery but if it saved the settings you had just entered a new battery most likely won't make any difference and you'll need to look elsewhere.
Click to expand...
Yeah, when you go back into the BIOS setup the settings are gone. I assume that may be the issue now. I took the whole motherboard out. Everything is in great shape with no flaws except for the dead battery. I even found a Yamaha OPL3 chip on the board, so that was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, the battery is actually a Benchmarq BQ3287AMT real time clock IC. I have no soldering experience... Maybe one of my friends can help me with that. If that's the entire problem, that'd be amazing. We'll see. I still thank you guys for all of your help, though.
 
Last edited:
Here's the problem with both the DS1287 and the BQ3287AMT---they have batteries in them and haven't been manufactured for several years. Even lithium cells have a shelf life, so any you're likely to find NOS are on their way out.

The DS12887A should do okay, and it's pretty recent. As far as I can tell, the BQ3287AMT and the DS12887A should be interchangeable, but you can look up the datasheets and check for yourself.
 
I'm a bit late to the party but a DDO shouldn't be necessary. I can see in his snapshot at the start of the thread it says "LBA Mode" and "Enabled" - a 2GB drive in a Pentium 100 would've been what it probably came with.

Hopefully it's just the battery. I use the same method Stone linked to above from tezza's page - serrated knife works good for the cuts, does take a bit of patience.
 
Yeah. The 1GB Hard Drive I'm using came with the computer when it was brand new in 1995. I'm probably just going to buy the Dallas DS12887A as it seems to have the same pinout as the Benchmarq chip when it comes to comparing the datasheets. I need to get a soldering iron, though, so I'll do that next time I go to Wal-Mart. I hope it goes well.

Also, the main reason I'm really dedicated to restoring this thing is that this was actually the first computer I ever really used. I remember playing Hocus Pocus and Shanghai: Great Moments on it quite a bit. It's probably going to make a good DOS gaming machine because of the integrated Sound Blaster OPL on the motherboard. It'll be fun playing stuff like Shadow President or I.M Meen, as I've never played stuff like that on real hardware before.
 
I have a Gateway P5-60 Tower with a Dallas Semiconductor dead battery also. In message # 21, a picture of your boot up process showed where it said that the batter was dead. It gives you an option, I think it was "F1", to RESUME, and the computer may possibly boot. Did you give that a try?

My computer does as yours does quiet similarly though I can Resume and she still boots and still seems to work for the most part. Although, I have not tried to run any Reactor Design Calculations using a system of non-linear differential mathematical equations, yet.

I have tried pulling out the DS12887 model number RTC I think it was with no luck. I did not want to damage anything so I did not get aggressive with it. I am afraid that obtaining of Dallas RTC is most likely not going to be possible, and I will have to find someone with a soldering iron who can help with the Chuck Mod for it instead.

My old man may can help with that if i ask nicely,

Let us know if the computer will still boot when you press the resume key. You must only try that at your own risk.

A good quote someone mentioned was, "Nothing risked, nothing gained . . . "

have fun everyone!
 
My Pentium P5-60 had gotten some circuitry fried in when I connected a printer to a power source without a surge supressor and the connection got a spark at the wall, the PC rebooted luckily, though, the floppy disk connected to the motherboard stopped working, the printer stopped printing, and later the ISA IDE part of the Intel Batman motherboard stopped working, though the rest of the computer continued working.

I am the original owner of the computer and so when the Dallas RTC battery went dead, I pushed a key for resume, had a heart attack as time went by and it screen had nothing on it, and then, it started going through the boot process.

Not sure if this can work for you, but I later wanted to put the original Windows 3.11 WFW workgroup edition back on a 540 MB HDD so i could install a version of Matlab only compatible with windows 3.11. I used another PC to install MS-DOS 6.22 onto the 540 MB IDE HDD. I put the HD back in the P5-60, put an old CD-rom card and cd-rom drive in the PC, and was able to install the windows on it using the cd-rom.

Until you get your Dallas RTC battery problem corrected, you may can get it to boot with booting a boot image such as MS-DOS on your HD using another PC, and with patience and time, it may possibly boot then.

I am uncertain as to the logical explanation why it still works despite not having the BIOS batter working other than the settings in the BIOS may still allow it to boot if it has a MS-DOS boot sector on a HD Size compatible with the PC.

Have you gave a go yet at replacing or doing the chuck-mod on the RTC correcting the battery problem?

I bet a if you have a PC hobby friend that solders or anyone that does soldering work can help you with the chuck-mod, i think is what the procedure was called.

have fun@!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top