The W98OEM boot disk supports FAT12/16/32 and has generic CDROM drivers. I can format my old 386SX16 and also my newish Duron, so very universal If I want an extremely minimalistic boot floppy to run DOS apps for diagnostic purposes and will not need CD support then make an MSDOS (ME DOS) boot disk from within XP, yet again extremely universal.

0

I knew I'd been helping you with the 486 memory and floppy drive problem but I hadn't realized you were also the person I tried to get the cdrom set up. That's why that ATACR directory showed up on your hard drive. I've got another setup disk for that cdrom that worked for someone else. If you get the drive problem fixed, I'll send the file. As I recall in your previous thread you said the floppy data cable was connected to a card and not the motherboard. Does that mean there is no floppy connection on the motherboard or that you're using the connection on the card instead of the motherboard connection? Also some of those cards had jumper setting to change the address of the drive. You might check that and try changing the setting and see what happens. So you got it to boot from a floppy and formatted and sys'd the hard drive. So I assume it'll boot from the HD now? But now it doesn't recognize a disk in the floppy drive? Does that include the same disk you booted from when you formatted and sys'd the hard drive? Can you still boot with that disk?

0

Hi Guys thx 4 responding. Yes DAVE IC it's me. I'm still battling away at this darn 486. Yea I don't understand it now. I have gone through all the motions now up to a point where I arrive at the C:> Dir gives me the ff files: IO.SYS MSDOS.SYS COMMAND.COM DRVSPACE.BIN The way I understand it is that these files are generic and I still need to load DOS 6.22. (Remember I formatted the HD. Am I correct? Dave yes my Floppy is connected to a card which houses the mouse. No Dave it does not boot from the HD it gives a message: "OPERATING SYSTEM MISSING" hence my question above. Yes everytime I boot up with that stiffie it works but at the C:> prompt when I insert my DOS 6.22 disk 1 it message me: Abort, Retry, Fail. Maybe I should make another set of Bootdisks.

0

This is what I had done now. I had Fdisked and formatted my HD. Now when I type "SYS c:" at the A:> I get folowing message: "Write failure, diskette unusable". GREAT!!!

0

If you can boot from one floppy disk but not another, then there's got to be a problem with the second disk. The system files are on the HD so it should boot from there. If it doesn't then either the drive is not set active in fdisk, the system files were copied and not sys'd to the hard drive, or the boot sector is not where the bios thinks it is. This can happen if the drive is fdisk'd with one bios configuration and then that configuration is changed. So do this, make sure the HD is configured right in cmos. Use either 'auto detect hard drive', if you have that option, or enter the C/H/S settings for that drive. Then boot with whatever bootdisk will work and run fdisk. Remove whatever partitions are there and then reboot. Run fdisk again, create the partition. Now the partition is created according to how the bios sees the drive. Reboot again and do the: format c:/s This formats it and transfers the system files. It should boot from the HD now. When you do the /s option with format or sys c: only the files necessary to boot the computer are transfered. The 3 dos disks you have transfer the system files and create a dos directory and put all the dos commands in there. The first of those 3 dos disks is bootable. But if you ever get it to boot and go ahead with the complete installation, it won't do it and tell you you've already got an operating system on the drive. That's because it's detected the system files on the drive already. Those disks are for a full installation on an empty drive. In that case you can either reformat the drive without the /s or at the a:\> prompt type: attrib -s -h -r c:\*.* and enter. This removes the file attributes so you can delete the files. Then type: del c:\*.* and enter. This removes the files from the c: drive. Then at the a:\> prompt type: autoexec and enter. This will start the installation again and this time it won't stop due to system files already being on the hard drive.

0

Hi everybody. Thx for your inputs in this matter. I have 3 different HD's which I intermittently connect to my puter. On the one I have installed Win 3.1 and that's working fine because I didn't need a CDROM. On the other one I have booted up with a Win95 bootdisk and the other Win98se. Where do I go from here. Bear in mind I only have 249mbs available on HD and about 11megs ram. Please help.

0

Of the 2--95 and 98--use the 95 for that small a drive. You can partition and format with the 95 bootdisk the same way you can with a dos 6.22 bootdisk. If this is the computer with the cr562 or whatever it was, see if the 95 cdrom drivers will see it. Otherwise I can send you the setup disk that worked with a similar cdrom.

0

Morning DAVE IC. Yes this is the same computer. I have 3 HD's with similar disk size. On the one I have booted up with DOS 6.22, thje other Win 95 and then Win 98. Yes, the CDROM is still not working. I will appreciate it if you can send me that setup disk. My other problem with Win 95 is that I don't have a CD!

0

Ok, I sent it. I included instructions on how to use it. Let me know if it works.

0

Hi DAVE IC. I'm afraid not. The message is: "Interface board or CD-ROM drive is not ready". Insure that the drive power is on and the drive cables correctly attached.

0

You might try the other addresses also. You may need to remove the old settings in config.sys and autoexec.bat first. Go ahead and boot the HD to the c:\> prompt and type: del config.sys and enter. And then: del autoexec.bat and enter. Then do the: a:\install again choosing a different address. You may even want to try the sound blaster settings. I'm sure the driver is right, it's just a matter of getting it setup on the card. I can't remember, are you sure the cdrom is good? Was it working before the HD was wiped?

0

Hi Dave IC. Yes I used this computer in the office and the CDROM was working. OK I'll do as you suggest and will post back.

0

Didn't some of these older cards come with a driver set too (on floppy)??? It's beeen so long... I may have one of those older cards around somewhere - which means also the driver floppies too (if I'm right re' drivers.) If so then perhaps they may be of help here?

0

Hi Trvlr. Look Dave and I (mostly Dave IC) have been experimenting with everything so far and I can say that emphatically...if Dave can't fix my problem then this problem stays unfixed!!! But I do appreciate your interest so why not give it a chance!! I have reinstalled a 5¼ inch floppy drive so if you have anything available let's try it! Highly appreciated!

0

If Trvlr has some installation disks for older proprietary cdroms I'd be interested in looking at them. They seem to be hard to find. Dawie, you might want to take a look at the card the cdrom is attached to again. I think you said before there was no model # on it. But even if you can describe the chips and the writing on them it may be helpful. I'm not sure about the 5 1/4 drive. Anymore they're only good for copying old 5 1/4 disks to 3 1/2. Do you know if it's a 360 K or a 1.2 meg? What is it's model #?

0

Hi DAVE IC. I'll look at the card and the floppy drive and will post back all the particulars.

0

Hi DAVE IC. The soundcard is a PAC MAGIC 93365 - 2.Made in Taiwan R.O.C. 48.14608.002. There are 2 big chips. On the one is written: T9412 MOZART OTI601 OAK TECHNOLOGY INC KVA21AAN07. On the other: CRYSTAL CS4231-KL EP BTAEOD9409 Other markings read: 55.14903.0614140426B S At the back there is an FCC ID IPLMAGIC. The 5¼ floppy drive is called TEAK, model FD-55GFR 7193 -U. Part no. 19307671-93. Ser. no. BW35243. On the "wheel" on the reverse side is written: 14733730-90(S) F2SSR80 -Y4808A That's the lot!

0

The teac is a 1.2. I'll see what I can find on the card.

0

http://www.driverguide.com/boards/sound-cards4/2191.html via trawl thru' google using: PAC MAGIC 93365 - 2 drivers as the string. I had to set google to show 'all' hits; rather than just a few... Possibly there are other sources/info too? May be useful to repeat seach via dogpile.com; it sometimes brings up other hits...

0

Yeah, I found a couple other sites also. One said it was also an acer S20 card. Without a detailed listing of the zipped files you can't tell if they include the cdrom drivers or are just sound drivers. Anyway I downloaded some stuff that had cdrom drivers but whether they'll setup the card automatically with the proper address is another matter. When I get time I'll extract them and see if they'll run on my test computer. Unfortunately some setup routines shutdown if they don't detect the card so I wouldn't be able to tell how it configures the cdrom driver.

0

Thx Dave and Trvlr for your efforts. I'm eagerly awaiting the outcome of your research. Whatever you can lay your hands on please e-mail to me to see if I can get this machine going again.

0

Yeah, sorry it's taking so long. I've been busy with some other stuff. I'll try to look at the files I downloaded tonight or tomorrow.

0

Ok, I'm going to email you a file that may work. It installs a cdrom driver and then the sound drivers. We don't need the sound drivers now so it doesn't matter if they work or are installed. We just need to get the cdrom set up. It originally didn't include mscdex.exe which goes in autoexec.bat. I've added it to the zip file, but it probably won't set it up in autoexec.bat. So go ahead and run the installation program and then post back contents of config.sys and autoexec.bat so I can see how they're configured. The installation program asks which cdrom you have. Choose Panasonic. I'm not sure about the other settings--you may have to try more than one. But first post back config.sys and autoexec.bat so I can see how the driver is configured.

0

At this stage.. might be simpler overall, and for very few $$/£££s... (£20/$20?) perhaps install a 'current' CDROM and connect to directly either its own EIDE-port (if this system has two - though possibly not very likely at that vintage Mobo)?); or at least as a Slave to current Master HD? Ensure bios sees it (you may to help it...). Then use standard mscdex drivers (installed via dos) and way you go? Similarly any '9x boot-disk will/should then find the CDROM and allow access to it for OS installation(s). By-passes the sound-card issue entirely; although you will need sound/audio drivers later (if using card for sound/audio).

0

Hi Dave and Trvlr. Don't apologise Dave, I'm just too gratefull for the efforts of people like you and Trvlr. Ok let me explained what happened. The installation went well, to a point. It asked for the destination directory and it suggested C:\MXTOAK. I said OK and then selected Panasonic. Now the request is to specify the directory for the MS-DOS Operating System 6.0 or greater, or the directory in which MSCDEX.exe is loaded. I select C:\DOS (I'm not sure whether this is the correct choice) and I select OK. The ff message now appear: "There is no MSCDEX.exe detected in user defined directory! You must specify the right directory if you have the CD-ROM! I then tried D:\ and E:\ drives but got the same message. I then dirred C: and found 2 files there, i.e. COMMAND COM and CDPLAY . I then copied the MSCDEX.exe file from a win98 bootdisk to the C:\ drive and I repeated the exercise. Same result. I also did the exercise with the other 2 drivers, i.e. MITSUMI and SONY with no luck. efforts to open Autoexec.bat and config.sys led to: "Bad command or file name".

0

Boot up again from the HD. At the c:\> prompt type: del config.sys and enter and then: del autoexec.bat and enter. This will delete those files so you can run the installation program again. Since you've copied mscdex to the hard drive, when it asks for the location of mscdex, change it to: c:\ OR, you can create a dos directory and copy mscdex to that. In that case, at the c:\> prompt type: md dos and enter. Then type: copy c:\mscdex.exe c:\dos and enter. Then you could specify c:\dos as the location of mscdex. It would still be a good idea to delete config.sys and autoexec.bat so you can do a fresh installation of the cdrom drivers.

0

Hi Dave. This is what I did. I rebooted with win95 bootdisk. I formatted the HD again and sys'd it. I then started installing your disk. At one point it asked me whether I have Windows installed. I said YES but surely it's not true. Now it says: "Please specify the directory for microsoft windows" It gives: c:\windows\ and here I'm stuck. When I press OK it says: "SYSTEM.INE does not exist in the specified WINDOWS directory or you have specifies an incorrect directory name! what do I do now?

0

I think you may be trying to install the sound drivers. Let's get the cdrom setup first. You'll have to manually copy mscdex.exe from the file I sent you to the HD, as I explained above since the installation process doesn't do it. If the installation process goes ahead and installs the sound drivers on it's own, don't tell it you've got windows.

0

Hi Dave. Yes I rectified my mistake. After rebooting I get the fol. message: D: drive error Press F1 to RESUME. The fol. then appear on screen: C:\C:\MSCDEX.exe /D:PANA_OAK /L:E /M:10 MSCDEX.EXE Version 2.25 copyright... Drive D: = Driver PANA_OAK unit 0 C:\>SET SOUND=C:\MZTOAK C:\SET BLASTER=A220 15 DI T4 C:\>C:\MZTOAK\MZTVOL.exe TSR installed successfully. When I type "E:\setup" I get fol. message: CDR101 Not ready reading drive E Abort Retry Fail Drive D: gives an invalid drive specification.

0

Post back contents of config.sys and autoexec.bat. That is, boot from the HD and at the c:\> prompt type: type config.sys and enter. Write down what it says. Then type: type autoexec.bat and enter. Write down what it says. Be sure to include the word 'type'. It looks like the driver is recognizing the cdrom. But the OS is setting it up as E: and the driver is setting it up as D: Hopefully looking at those two files will show what the reason is.

0

Ok Dave here it is: AUTOEXEC.BAT reads: C:\MSCDEX.exe /D:PANA_OAK /L:E /M:10 SET SOUND=c::\MZTOAK SET BLASTER=A220 15 DI T4 C:\MZTOAK\MZTVOL.exe CONFIG.SYS reads: DEVICE=C;\MZTOAK\MZTINIT.SYS /A220 /15 /DI /P /CA340 /C110 /G /V7 DEVICE=C:\MZTOAK\PANINIT.SYS DEVICE=C:\MZTOAK\CDMKE41.SYS /D:PANA_OAK /r /P:340 /n:1 Dave can I ask you a stupid question. If drive D is going to be the CDROM. Why is Hard Drive D: in the BIOS set on "not installed" or is that only meant for hard-drives?

0

Yeah, that's really just for hard drives. Since it's the drivers that recognize the cdrom and not the bios itself, all you really need is for the controllers to be enabled. But that doesn't matter with your setup since the cdrom is connected to a card. The 'L:E' in this line: C:\MSCDEX.exe /D:PANA_OAK /L:E /M:10 is what's making the cdrom drive letter E: instead of D: You can remove that and just have it be: C:\MSCDEX.exe /D:PANA_OAK /M:10 This is the line that loads the cdrom driver: DEVICE=C:\MZTOAK\CDMKE41.SYS /D:PANA_OAK /r /P:340 /n:1 I'm not sure what the 'r' does but I guess it means something to the cdrom driver. Anyway, make that change to the mscdex line in autoexec.bat and see it it'll read a cd then. You may need to copy config.sys to a floppy and edit it on another computer or I can email you the change. I'm going to bed now. I'll check back tomorrow.

0

Morning Dave. Question: How do I make changes in the autoexec.bat file? I seem to arrive at a C:\> everytime I open the autoexec.bat file. Second question: how do I copy the Config.sys file to a floppy. I tried by entering the fol. but I'm not sure its ok. I typed at the C:\> copy config.sys to a: When I dirred it showed that the file has been cop[ied. how do I open it now?

0

Since there's no editing software on the the computer, you'd need to edit the file on another computer. To copy the autoexec.bat file to a floppy, type at the c:\> prompt: copy c:\autoexec.bat a: and enter. Then use notepad or even the dos EDIT command on another computer to edit that one line. Then to copy it back, put the disk back in and type: copy a:\autoexec.bat c: and enter. When it asks if you want to overwrite the existing file, hit Y. Then take the disk out and reboot and see if it'll read the cd's.

0

Dave afternoon. I have done just that. Now when I reboot I get the fol. message: "Interface board or CD-ROM drive is not ready. If CD_ROM drive is not ready, please set or turn on. This is my last effort before I will eventually throw in the towel.

0

Have to admire DaveIC for his patience, and Dawie for his persistence... As suggested a few posts back (#30)... cut your losses (time-wise) and invest in a $20/£20 CDROM (current model); connect as Slave to current HD; install MSCDEX driver (or supplied drivers that come on a floppy - usually) and away you 'should' go. This way you by-pass the sound-card issue entirely; just use the sound card as that - no involvement with CDROM (other than audio o/p)? All things being equal there 'should' be no problems in adding a CDROM to 'any' 486 system; similarly to a 386/386SX (or even a 286...); but it's usually simpler/wiser to avoid using the sound-card CDROM control- interface, by Slaving drive to current Master HD, or using a second EIDE channel (if available).

0

Hi Trvlr, yes you are right. I am really appreciative of what Dave has been trying to do but I can tell you one thing - I have learnt a lot from all of this. Yes I think there must be something wrong with either the CDROM or the sound card. Maybe I should follow your advice. any case a big thanx to you and especially to Dave for his efforts. I don't think its easy to fix something that is physically about 8000kms away from you. just a last thought. Couldn't it be something wrongly set in the BIOS. I noticed a number of items have been disabled and some abled. how do I know what should be abled or disabled?...just wondering.

0

It's been so long since I've worked on 486 with a cdrom attached to the sound card that I don't remember if I had to change the bios settings. In post 35 you say you get a message: 'D: drive error. Press F1 to resume'. That's a bios message and not coming from the cdrom drivers. I would think that means the bios believes there are 2 hard drives. Is it possible there is a second hard drive configured in cmos? You may want to do another 'auto detect hard drive' and see what happens. In #35 both the drivers and mscdex were loading and everything should have been OK but there was a problem with what the drive letter should be. I think that's because of the 'd: drive error' you got. Also the error message you got in #41 was from the cdrom drivers. Did you change anything in config.sys? Otherwise they should have loaded OK as they did in #35. Removing the 'L:E' in the mscdex line in autoexec.bat wouldn't affect whether the drivers loaded in config.sys since config.sys is processed before autoexec.bat. Getting a regular IDE cdrom may what you should do. Even if you don't have EIDE controllers on your 486, it should work OK. Using Enhanced IDE allows the cdrom to run a little faster.

0

Hi Dave. No I didn't do anything in config.sys. After I installed that last file you sent me I was able to go from C:\> to D:\>. But all of a sudden I get a message: "Invalid Drive specification" when I try to change the drive. Same with E:\>. I did try to auto detect drive D in the bios but it didn't work. I still need to replace the ribbon-cable as I think that could also be probematic. Isn't it?

0

Well usually the 'D: drive error' is because of a HD misidentified in cmos. I suppose it could be a cabling problem since it went to D: for a second or maybe the HD isn't jumpered correctly. Or it may be combination of those things. The 'auto-detect HD' only works for IDE drives, so it wouldn't detect that cdrom anyway. I do think we have the correct driver and the correct setup. But there's some other problem too.

0