Hi, (hope this is in the right forum...)
I recently came accross an old 386, an Epson EL3 /33. It seems to work ok and i'd like to set it up to play all my favorite old games at normal speeds.
But..
from what i understand from looking around these forums and the internet is that i need a reference disk. i've tried 1, but it's for a different model and will not run and the epson website doesn't list my computer.
so if anyone can help me find a reference disk it would be very much appriciated.

Thanks

David

http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/...

http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/...

Do you mean you have not installed an O/S ?

if so either FreeDOS or DR-DOS would be suitable:

http://www.freedos.org/
http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/...

http://www.mwpms.uklinux.net/

i've been looking at the epson site and thought that

http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/...

was a closer mach, but there only seems to be the PDF manuals on there, whereas I think i need a reference disk to even begin installing any OS because Windows 3.1 and Windows 1.01 don't detect any hard drives when I attempt to install them.

The computer came installed with 2 HDs which i've tried swaping or using them individually as well as a spare 1.4GB maxtor and windows will install onto none of them.

an MS-DOS boot disk works fine, will FreeDOS or DR-DOS run from disk or do they also need to be installed?

thanks

When the pc starts, have you tried entering setup to see what is in the bios.

It should show the hdd's.

If not, it suggests the battery may have failed and the bios has reverted to default parameters.

If so, you should be able to enter the params. Leave the pc on for a few hours to charge up the battery. With luck the params may remain in the bios when next you start the pc. If not, you probably need a new battery.

Suggest you:-

a)use a dos boot floppy for testing.

b)install dos 6.2x

Am not sure about a 'reference disk', maybe you can get away without it.

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

It's been awhile but I don't remember Epson's needing a reference disk. With most 286's and many 386's you needed a bootdisk containing the necessary software to access cmos/bios setup. If a hard drive isn't being detected, the first thing you need to check is in the cmos, as Mike suggests. If you're lucky you can access it with a series of keystrokes. There's probably no drive auto detect feature with that bios. Are you familiar with configuring the drive type?

And you said you tried a 1.4 gig drive. Normally that bios will only see up to about 500 meg. There were add-on Promise cards that could see up to 4 gig and you can also use a drive overlay but otherwise a drive that large won't be seen.

You say it's Windows 3.1 and earlier versions that aren't detecting the drive when you attempt to install them. Of course you must install dos before 3.1 so I'm wondering how that installation went?

CTRL + ALT + S enters SETUP, I would of hoped you read the PDF manuals for yourself !!

Hi DAVEINCAPS,

I remember having setup discs, but they were for the original pc's 8086/8088.

Do not recall them by the time the 386's came in. I was assuming this is what Drussel meant when he was talking about a refernce disk. Regards - Mike

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

thanks to everyone for you're help, i've been away for a bit. i sort of started to learn a lot about computers about 1999, so i'm not great with anything pre windows 98, which is why i want to get an older computer running.

lots of good ideas there (i was starting to lose hope), but i'll try them out and get back to you on the results

ok, here is where I am.
DOS 6.22 won't install because it can't find the hard drive.
i can make a boot disk from m windows XP machinne to get to the command prompt but CTRL-ALT-S doesn't do anything (but CTRL-ALT-DEL works fine so it's not the keyboard).
the exact error on startup is:

161 - System options not set
(Run SETUP in REFERENCE DISK)
(Resume = "F1" key)
the manual also talks about using F2 to enter setup, doesn't work either.

and from what i understand, the CMOS battery is inside a "Dallas DS1287 Real Time" chip and is not practical to replase from what i've read on other forums.

or am i just wasting my time and i should find another computer to play with?

thanks

It sounds like the reference disk is what epson calls their cmos setup disk. It's doubtful you'll be able to go further without finding one. Even if the battery is bad and you replace it you'll still need that disk to set things up.

Some of those dallas-type batteries were soldered in and some were socketed. Even if they're soldered they can be replaced. It just depends if you have the necessary solder and soldering iron. I probably have a few of those batteries lying around but I don't know if they're any good. I'm sure you could buy a new one online or at a computer or battery store.

Are you wasting your time? Well, you're trying to restore an antique. That's always more time consuming than using something newer. You should be able to get a 486, pentium I or II for next to nothing at a garage sale. (I have someone who picks up 2 or 3 unsold ones every week. They're happy to just get rid of them even if they don't make any money.)

This:

ftp://ftp.epson.com

is their ftp site. Open the 'desktop' directory. Read the FILES.LST file for a description of all the files there. There are several there to create setup disks but I didn't see one for your particular model. But one there may work. You may also want to check the other directories to see if you can find the file.

i hadn't seen ftp://ftp.epson.com before, i tried a few files but they all came up with "not for this system" errors when i ran them.

the dallas chip is soldered in and can't be bothered going that far, but i did find

http://www.mcamafia.de/mcapage0/dsr...

that details how to replace the internal battery with an external one.

so i think i'll take all the useful components out and put the computer back where i found it, by the side of the road.
maybe i'll try and find a 486 or my families old IBM PS/2

thanks all for you're help, i've really learnt a lot about older computers

You're welcome. Don't forget about ebay. A lot of that old stuff sells pretty good there. You may be able to get a few dollars for it.