mattiasthorelli
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2026
- Messages
- 2
Hi, I'm a new member and a new PicoMEM user. I'm having lots of strange issues.
So I recently found a Compaq Deskpro 386s, with 5 mb of ram installed. The computer has no CMOS, and so it has lost all of its settings. I figured I would use a PicoMEM to breathe some life into it, and generally make using it simpler. But I'm having trouble getting it to work.
(There must be something wrong on a basic level that I don't understand, so I can only describe the symptoms…)
The first thing I noticed was that it was very particular about which disk images would load, and which would hang the system. For example, a Dos 5 image linked from PicoMEM's github worked, but the corresponding Dos 6.22 image did not.
After about four hours of trying out different versions of disk images in different ways, I finally managed to install MS-Dos 6.22 on a hdd image, and it booted. But then the next problem: both config.sys and autoexec.bat had garbled text, and thus didn't work.
When I tried putting Norton Commander onto the hdd via my modern computer, the files in the folder were also garbled when I booted up the Compaq. My modern computer is a Mac, which I'm sure can cause issues (sorry!), like using the wrong text encoder or something.
Another two hours and a few Dos reinstalls later, suddenly the autoexec.bat and config.sys files are working again. I don't know why. But then, running pminit at boot (which the PicoMEM decided to do on its own) hangs the computer. I had to rename pminit to something else. I can still run it after boot.
And now, the c drive is suddenly seen as write protected.
Any ideas what could cause these issues?
So I recently found a Compaq Deskpro 386s, with 5 mb of ram installed. The computer has no CMOS, and so it has lost all of its settings. I figured I would use a PicoMEM to breathe some life into it, and generally make using it simpler. But I'm having trouble getting it to work.
(There must be something wrong on a basic level that I don't understand, so I can only describe the symptoms…)
The first thing I noticed was that it was very particular about which disk images would load, and which would hang the system. For example, a Dos 5 image linked from PicoMEM's github worked, but the corresponding Dos 6.22 image did not.
After about four hours of trying out different versions of disk images in different ways, I finally managed to install MS-Dos 6.22 on a hdd image, and it booted. But then the next problem: both config.sys and autoexec.bat had garbled text, and thus didn't work.
When I tried putting Norton Commander onto the hdd via my modern computer, the files in the folder were also garbled when I booted up the Compaq. My modern computer is a Mac, which I'm sure can cause issues (sorry!), like using the wrong text encoder or something.
Another two hours and a few Dos reinstalls later, suddenly the autoexec.bat and config.sys files are working again. I don't know why. But then, running pminit at boot (which the PicoMEM decided to do on its own) hangs the computer. I had to rename pminit to something else. I can still run it after boot.
And now, the c drive is suddenly seen as write protected.
Any ideas what could cause these issues?
