What's the DOS command for 'Wait 5 seconds, then execute any key'

After it says *** Press Any Key to Continue *** below,
I would like it to wait 5 seconds so I can switch floppies, then automatically execute a command that any key has been pressed.

ECHO.
ECHO Insert Drive Image Disk 2 (Program)
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO *** Press Any Key to Continue ***
ECHO.
PAUSE >NUL

ECHO Drive Image 2002
ECHO Copyright 1994-2002, PowerQuest Corporation.
ECHO All rights reserved.
ECHO.
ECHO Loading. Please wait...
ECHO.

The reason for asking this is:

1. An old computer whose Keyboard PS/2 port fell off but mouse PS/2 port & USB ports are still there & working.
2. Connecting keyboard to mouse PS/2 port doesn't work, using PS/2 splitters doesn't work but USB Keyboard does.
3. USB keyboard doesn't work under DOS.

I know there are External USB HD/CDRW DOS drivers but searching for USB Keyboard DOS drivers yielded no results.

I'd also like to know if you can access an old computer's BIOS from Windows?

Thank you for your help.

1. Don't understand why you need to wait 5 seconds - the pause command will wait for you to press a key, giving you as little or as much time as you need to switch floppies.
2. You could always just put the USB drivers on the boot-disk, and then you won't have to switch floppies in the first place...
3. Although Windows can access the BIOS, you, as the user, cannot directly access the BIOS from Windows (unless you're into old-school assembly programming ^_^ ).

AKhalifman@hotmail.com

Thank you for trying to help me.

1.The computer's Ps/2 keyboard port is broken (physically chopped off :) ) so only USB keyboards can be used on it which don't work in DOS, as explained right where it says: "The reason for asking this is..." above. :)

2. There's no such thing as DOS USB drivers for keyboards, is there? (There's external USB HD/CDRW DOS drivers out there but not for USB keyboards that I know of.)

Drive Image on floppies can be used with a PS/2 mouse which I have but:

The problem is that the program uses two start up floppies and asks for 'any key' to be pressed when inserting the second floppy which I can't do with a USB Keyboard.

Drive Image can be also run from a CD but I need to change the Boot Device order in BIOS, hence the BIOS question.

3. I take it there's no software that can change the BIOS values if one has access to a USB and not a PS/2 Keyboard?

I actually need the program to:

1. Get to the point where it says *** Press Any Key to Continue ***

2. Pause 5 seconds.

3. Continue on as if 'Any key' was pressed (even though it wasn't)

I came up with a somewhat odd way of waiting for a specified amount of time the other day when writing a batch file.

First, it requires the PING tool, so I don't know if it will work very well for you, but it's worth a shot.

Use it like this if you want to wait 5 seconds with no output:

PING 1.1.1.1 /N 3 /W 1000 > NUL

The general rule that seems to be pretty accurate is to divide the number of seconds to wait by 2 and use that value for the /N switch. This example is for 5 seconds, so you use use /N 3 to get pretty close to 5 secs (about 5.3 secs on my system).

Yeah, somebody also told me to use saimilar line (what's the difference btw):
ping -n 5 127.0.0.1 >NUL

but that's just the delay part, isn't it?

What about the part where it thinks 'Any key' was pressed and it continues on?

After the Pause > Nul command add the folowing

Choice /C:@ /N /T:@,05

that stems up a delay of 5 seconds (it is very unlike you press @ in the meanwhile).

The choice command is not included under Win 2K/XP, but the Win 9X/ME version works if transferred to those systems.

Sorry, replace the Pause > Nul command with Choice and you should get your goal, but...

that works while the keyboard is not operative as pressing any key will suspend the execution untill @ is pressed on a working keyboard.

I hope this helps, however.

Boot floppy #1 starts the system and gets to the point where it asks for floppy #2 to be inserted.

THIS IS WHERE I WOULD LIKE IT TO WAIT 5 seconds THEN CONTINUE

All the suggestions above result with the program getting to *** Press Any Key to Continue ***

But then immediately I get
Bad command or file name

It doesn't wait.

The full txt of the original AUTOEXEC.BAT:

@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G

-
REM -- Put keyboard codes (xx) and --
REM -- code page variables (yyy) here. --
-

REM MODE CON CP PREP=((yyy) EGA.CPI)
REM MODE CON CP SEL=yyy
REM KEYB xx,yyy

-
REM -- Put network or CD-ROM drivers here. --
-

REM Windows DOS:
REM MSCDEX.EXE /D:driver_name [/L:drive_letter] [/M:buffers]

REM Caldera DOS:
REM NWCDEX.EXE /D:driver_name [/L:drive_letter] [/M:buffers]

MOUSE

SET TZ=CST6CDT

ECHO.
ECHO Insert Drive Image Disk 2 (Program)
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO *** Press Any Key to Continue ***
ECHO.
PAUSE >NUL

ECHO Drive Image 2002
ECHO Copyright 1994-2002, PowerQuest Corporation.
ECHO All rights reserved.
ECHO.
ECHO Loading. Please wait...
ECHO.

PQDI

SUCCESS!

I downloaded this program:
ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/utiltask/sleep_47.zip

Extracted the zip file and copied SLEEP.EXE to the floppy.

Then I replaced line
PAUSE >NUL
with
SLEEP FOR 5

The floppy now waits for 5 seconds then continues the program automatically allowing it to load.

Thanks everybody for the ideas.

Good luck.