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Date: | Tue, 27 Jul 1999 15:00:32 -0700 |
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On 27 Jul 99, at 18:56, Ed Estigoy wrote:
> This is quite long. I have with me a an "old" laptop, old by todays'
> standards.
...
> I cannot boot up from it. It hangs/freezes after the system configuration
> table is shown. I have to make use of a booting diskette in order to access
> its c drive.
>...
> I have reformatted its hard disk, but all proceedings will come back to
> square one.
This is more-or-less the classic symptom of a drive that has be formatted
and partitioned, but then the primary partition has not be set "active" and
so is not bootable. [You should be able to set it active from the FDISK
menu.]
[On older desktops, this scenario would usually lead to the message "NO
ROM BASIC. SYSTEM HALTED.", but I know of no laptops that have ever *had*
ROM BASIC or the socket to add it.]
> My second problem is the out of memory message which I get if I run a
> program, like for example a virus scanner.
Unfortunately, few modern virus scanners are designed to run on a machine
as old and limited as yours. And if you *could* get hold of something old
enough to run, odds are against you finding updates to it to recognize the
latest threats. You may be out of luck.
> ACT 386 model :NB386SX-16
>
> Stingray Rev 4+ VGA BIOS Version3.02
> 386 BIOS (C) 1987 AMI for Notebook Computer V2.0S
> Cirrus Logic
>
> BIOS PORTION Cyln Head Wpcom Lzone Sec Size
> Hard Disk C type : 19 1024 7 512 1023 17 60Mb
> Scratch RAM option : 1
> Main Bios shadow : Enabled
>
> I've tried fiddling with the BIOS but I can't change/modify the settings
>
> System Configuration
> Main processor : 80386 Base Memory : 640Kb
> Numeric processor : none Ext Mem Size : 1024 K
> Floppy drive A : 1.44Mb Hard disk type : 19
> Floppy drive B : none Serial Ports : 3F8, 2F8
> Display type : VGA or EGA Parallel Ports : 378
> ROM BIOS date : 06/13/90
>
>
> I have also tried modifying the autoexec.bat and Config.sys files
> but still the problem persists, it maybe that the settings are jumbled.
>
> Config.sys : Autoexec.bat
> device=c:\dos\setver.exe path c:\;c:\dos
> device=c:\dos\himem.sys prompt $t$_$p$g
> device=c:\dos\emm 386.exe ram set temp = c:\temp
> buffers=20 smartdrv
> files=40
> break=on
> dos=high,umb
If your version of DOS comes with a MEMMAKER.EXE program, it may be able
to shuffle things a little to give you more space in main RAM for programs.
> What important dos files should be always in the root directory ?
IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT must be there. It's
convenient to put COMMAND.COM there too, although you can use the SHELL=
setting to refer to it from some other directory. Nothing else *needs* to be
there. although things will get inconvenient if they're not is some directory
listed in the PATH.
David G
PCBUILD's List Owner's:
Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>
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