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I have a Toshiba M20 laptop. It's very new and very fast. But I am concern about the whether the modem or the sound card will work under Dos. The user manual doesn't say whether they are Windoze modem or Windoze sound card or not. Also, I don't know if graphics will work. The laptop will primarily be used for Wordperfect 6.0 and web browsing (probably Arenche) using modem and ethernet. I'd also like to play some old Dos games; thus I'd like to get sound working. Do you have any experience with laptops? Will I be able to get the modem, sound card, graphics card, and ethernet card to work right?
Regards, KI
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Houston, TX, USA
Most likely, the modem is a WinModem (works only under Windows) and quite possibly no DOS drivers exist for the sound card (if this is the machine):
http://shopper.cnet.com/Toshiba_Satellite_M20_S257/4014-3121_9-30463638.html
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There may be Soundblaster legacy settings in the BIOS which would allow you to setup for sound in DOS.
You do realize that DOS6xx doesn't recognize partitions larger than 2Gb (FAT16)?
DOS requires a hardware modem installed on a 'real' COM port
Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience
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FWIW...If you're that determined to surf using DOS, I'd suggest an external (i.e. Hardware) modem...
If you're using Arachne, you shouldn't have any real problems setting up the Video as VGA (but you may have to stay with the standard 640x480x16 color resolution)
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640x480 resolution! 16 colors! That stinks.
I plan to partition 2 Gb for Dos and the rest, 38 Gb for WIN-XP.
I don't see any SoundBlaster setting at all in the Bios.
Is PCMCIA modem considered "hardware" modem? I've got one in my closet; it's a couple years old.
Thanks for all the replys. I will upgrade to Dos soon. But I gather it will be a real struggle to get it to where I'm satisfy.
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Yeah, I'd think that would have to be a hardware type modem, but you would no doubt require PCMCIA drivers.
DOS really doesn't require video drivers as such, although (at one time) application specific drivers would often be provided by the card manufacturer in order to use higher resolutions.
You could run Syschk to see if your sound settings are DOS friendly.
DOS6 seems like an odd choice for this machine.
Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience
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Seems to me that you are more than beating your head against the wall, here. In newer laptops, you may very well find incompatabilities with ports and so on in DOS, too.
Why not at LEAST install Whendoz 98SE? I would think that would solve the large part of your problem, and there is NO reason you can't get Wordperfect to run within '98
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I just happen to have Dos 6 (I think 6.2) on disks. I have not used Dos since the mid 90s, so I'm not very familiar at the moment with the newer versions of Dos.
I can probably run WordPerfect for Dos under Windoze XP. But I want to run under the genuine Dos operating system.
So it looks like: 1) I'd have to use a hardware modem, 2) I'd get only low resolution graphics--16 color, and 3) sound probably won't work. In addition, I'd have to get a non-Windoze printer.
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I would suggest using windows 95/98 insetad of XP. Win 9x will be asble to run WordPerfect 6, I would use internet in windows. For sound you may have to searech to get a soubdblaster PCMCIA card, rarely are new (laptop) computers DOS soundblaster compliant.
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What on earth is a "labtop"?
e-nun-ci-ate
PCMCIA is, I believe, the card & socket services interface used in laptops. References to a 'real' COM port (1-4) as opposed to the virtual sort often used by Winmodems. By definition, an external modem would be a hardware modem.Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience
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This Laptop has been created/designed/engineered to be Windows 2000 / XP compatible, therefore as these are not DOS based O/S even installing W98Se or ME could be difficult due to driver support.
There is oodles of info on running WP here:
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/index.html
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I would recommend just trying, but I see it does not have a floppy drive. Maybe a bootable CD.
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I purchased an external floppy drive with USB connector. It works; the computer boots off of the external floppy drive. In the BIOS, there is an option for Legacy Floppy Drive. Unfortunately, there is no option for legacy sound support.
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I got Dos 6.2 and WP 6.0 installed, and they are running great. This brings back good old memories. But the 16-color resolution really stinks. I wish I can have at least 256 color. Moreover, I'm going to have to buy a postscript printer. I think HP has one that can print front and back for about 400 bucks; it was at Office Depot. Do you think WP for DOS can print front and back? Regarding dual boot, the Windoze-XP-Toshiba CD that came with my laptop doesn't work with any other O/S. What I mean is that whenever I try to use the CD, it tries to reformat the Harddrive and thus would destroy my DOS partition. I guess this is Windoze way of eliminating competition: bar other O/S from being installed concurrently with Windoze. I guess this means I've to buy Partition-Magic. Geez, this is getting expensive. I might just buy another computer with legacy hardware and dedicate that one to DOS only.
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