bought a toshiba t3100 with a 3 1/2 floppy and trying to get it up and running. of course there's no software with it but the manual says i need ms dos 2.11. have read some of the posts where samaritans send them a copy. if said samaritan is out there i'd appreciate a copy or at least send me in the right direction. the earliest version i've found tonight is 3.something.

have found various versions of msdos and tried them in my t3100. used someone's at&t dos 2.11, but i keep getting "disk error or non-system disk" etc, even when there is No disk in the 3.5. could it be disconnected inside?

Make sure your not using a High Density (1.44MB) floppy. DOS 3.3 was the first to support the HD floppy, I believe. I'm wondering why it tells you to use DOS 2.1 with a 3.5" floppy drive. Confirm what size floppy drive you have. Wouldn't hurt to check if the cable is connected and if it is set up right in the BIOS setup. Also could be that the drive needs to be cleaned. Lastly, maybe the floppy is no good. HTH

spot
thanks for the advice. as to the why of 2.11, the manual says that's what it came with. but i will try to find double density disks, which the manual says it uses. and as to confirming if it's a 3-1/2, it's a portable and that's the drive.

ml

I alsow have a t3100/20 and i'm having the same problem. nothing will get it to boot. I really need some help!

I've just bought a Toshiba T3200 with the same problem! Someone's wiped the hard disk, I just get a Bad or Missing Command Interpreter message. I dismantled the machine and tried everything, and worked out it was actually working, but only reading the boot sector of the floppy, then failing. I tried Minix version 2.0.2 and it works! I think these machines need a special version of DOS, I am guessing that the versions of DOS I have don't support the floppy controller for some reason.

Hope this is of some help to someone!

Alex Taylor

I got it! After everything, I found the switch on the back that switches the parallel port between printer and external FDD mode. If it's set to A (and/or possibly B), it messes up the internal floppy so it won't boot, because it thinks the internal floppy is drive B. Set the switch to PRT and it should boot from any standard 720K floppy without problems.

Hope this helps!

Alex Taylor.

hehe i thought id be the last one having the t3100 with this problem :)

i´ll try alex´ method but i´d like to know what u payed for it... (because i got it for some work...)

u can email me if u wish

Thanks for the info on the switch. I tore one of my 3100s to pieces trying to figure out what was wrong. I got the second one going. If any one ever needs some parts. I have a box full, e-mail me, they are yours for the cost of shipping. I would be happy to trade shipping of a part for a photo copy of and original manual.

hi michael and ppls

if your still visiting, i wanta know how much did you get for that toshiba t3100? cause i got one back in nov 1999 and its 50bucks. i though its a fair price but when i got home found out its not working. BIOS erros and battery dead. i thought that general error and i could fix it. But i havin hard time open up the case to see what's inside. Do you have any manuals related to T3100? If possible i need its BootDisks, OS, Appls, Progs, Games and any other things that related to T3100 that's would be great.

Thanks

The internal battery sits in a velcro attached holder and is available from Radio Shack. The connector isn't standard so you have to clip and resolder the wires and use some heat shrink. The battery lasts about 3-4 years.

My original 3100 came with MS-DOS 3.2. Some programs which I still have work great, i.e. Symphony, Cruise Control (screen utility), Stacker 4.0 (disk compression so I get 40mb effective), and others. I did upgrade the CPU to a 486SX (required new socket on the MB). All in all, a nice set up for a classic machine. Still works like a champ.

I did get Windows 3.5 to work on it but it takes up a considerable amount of HD space. Recommend sticking to DOS. DR-DOS also works fine on it. The external floppy drives are great since the originals are 720kb versions. If you can find the 2MB memory addition, it really helped. Using the high memory available due to the 486SX installation, I have about 586k of conventional memory after everything loads.

Enjoy the classic!!! Kevin

If anyone can tell me how to fit the t3100's hard drive to a modern day computer i can give you all the software you will need for the lil thing ... In return i will need someone to tell me how to repair my t3100

Lots 'o' love