Ok - your machine satisfies the minimum specs for Win98 - performance won't be great, but it should run. No, MS-DOS 622 likely would only complicate things. When you are booting from a floppy disk, that is where the operating system (DOS) is being loaded from. It seems highly unusual for you to be receiving error messages concerning a missing command interpreter on the C: drive when booting from A: Are you certain that you're booting from the floppy and not the hard disk?? Check the CMOS boot sequence and ensure that the floppy is first, and enabled. Since this occurs with various bootdisks, it would not seem to be the case of a bad floppy We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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no the error is not missing from c: it's just missing period. and also, i have checked numerous times, the boot order is a, c. my hard drive is completely empty, no partitions... nothing. when i boot to the c drive first i get the message error no rom basic... also, i have just tried another controller card... same message. one day, my position will be replaced by a monkey... sad, oh so sad... but true.

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Ok - more than a little strange, as the OS is on the floppy (including command.com) You're certain that the floppy drive is entered correctly in the CMOS? Typing a:\command.com doesn't help? We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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strangely yes. my CMOS asks for a distinction between 720 kb 3 1/2, 1.44 mb 3 1/2, and 2.88 mb 3 1/2. I am using a 1.44 mb 3 1/2 inch floppy, and my CMOS is reflecting that. also i have tried typeing in command.com with various prefixes, but none of them seem to yeild any results. i have also checked the disk, and there is a command.com file on the disk. one day, my position will be replaced by a monkey... sad, oh so sad... but true.

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Well, something is not right, probably hardware. You've swapped FDDs with no effect. Tried a different FDD cable? This controller you're referring to - is it a floppy controller, HDD or 'combo'? We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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the conroller i a combo... a little old tho. ive also tried different jumper settings and different cables, along with different master/slave settings. one day, my position will be replaced by a monkey... sad, oh so sad... but true.

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Ok - well I would suspect that's where the problem lies. Possibly the card is misconfigured? Try booting with the HDD disconnected. Is there an onboard controller? If so, check your CMOS options regarding enabling/disabling We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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i've just tried disconnected the HDD and the cd-rom, i still get the same messge when booting from the floppy. one day, my position will be replaced by a monkey... sad, oh so sad... but true.

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That is REALLY strange. I would suggest downloading a some bootable floppies from www.bootdisk.com. Try a Win95.

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Can't hurt - but he's already tried some other disks. I'm guessing there's a problem with the controller or a conflict in the CMOS if an onboard controller is present. Or... We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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The thing that bothers me is that it apparently is getting to the floppy and booting enough up to put out that message.

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Yeah - I have seen that occasionally when the FDD is incorrectly entered in the CMOS. The boot sector can be read, but not much else. Doesn't seem to be precisely the same case here, but if there's a controller or cable problem, that might explain it. We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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But that message is not put out by the Bios. It is put out by a program on the floppy (IO.SYS).

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Yes - I know. IO.SYS is being read, but maybe not much else. We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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Yes, io.sys is running and his last job is to call command.com. He can't find command.com, so he puts out the message.

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That's what it seems like to me. Not the normal course of events if command.com is present, so it appears that for whatever reason, the disk cannot be read accurately (beyond loading io.sys). We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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io.sys is 218K bytes and command.com is smaller at 92K bytes. So it seems to me that it would take a really strange hardware problem to read the boot sector and io.sys perfectly fine and then not be able to find command.com. But, of course, this IS a REALLY strange problem.

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Well, yes, it is - but if it is a hardware problem, all kinds of strange behaviour may be expected. Also, IO.SYS is the very first file on the disk, which may make it easier to locate (?) Just conjecture though - We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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I just hope he posts back with the resolution. But, we all know the odds of that happening. I have a chore to do, so I gotta go. I'll probably check this thread tomorrow to see the fix. :-)

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I'd think there is either a problem with the floppy drive on the 486 or the floppy drive on the computer being used to create the bootdisks. Or maybe the disk itself. Are you using the same floppy disk when creating the different bootdisks?

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wow! i never expected to have so many responses. I can tell you that I have used many different types of boot disks. ones that have worked on other computers. also I have gone to various sites and tried their boot disks. it always seems to come out the same. and to the one that was wondering if i had an onboard controller, the motherboard, without a doubt, has no onboard contollers. just for recap purposes, i have tried, now, 3 different FDD's, about 5 or 6 different boot disks, 2 known working cd-rom drives, and three HDD's, as well as 2 different I/O controller cards. Thank you for being so informative. your posts have been most helpful! one day, my position will be replaced by a monkey... sad, oh so sad... but true.

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hey everybody, I have recently had a sudden strike of inspiration. during the earlier days of this motherboard i had a video card (1 of 2 cards i have that use the 32-bit VLB extention), this video card had an un-solvable problem of weird colored screens and random errors. well the other of the 2 cards is the (you guessed it) I/O card. I think maybe it is the 32-bit extentions on my motherboard? is this feasable... what do you think? thanks again for being so helpful. one day, my position will be replaced by a monkey... sad, oh so sad... but true.

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well... if you'll believe this. I have swapped out my 32-bit I/O card for a 16 bit card and tried it in many different slots. and yet, I still end up at the same place. building a 486 and putting windows 98 on it was supposed to be fun and educational... but now it has turned into an impossible nightmare of a project. i'm all out of ideas. if anyone can help anymore that would be really great. i have to finish this, i wouldnt feel right otherwise. one day, my position will be replaced by a monkey... sad, oh so sad... but true.

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This is a puzzler. Did you ever try a different FDD cable? Since you've swapped out everything else, other than that, the only common thread is the computer itself - possibly a CMOS setting, but I don't know what else to suggest. Extensions, hard drives and CD-ROMs are generally irrelevant as far as booting from a floppy - this is a basic, hardwired computer function. We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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Yeah, it shouldn't matter but see what happens if you disconnect the IDE devices and set them to NONE in cmos.

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