PULSELOOPER
Offline
São Paulo, Brazil

Hi folks. I was looking for an OPL3 machine and a friend gave me an old Toshiba Libretto 70, with Win98 installed and a floppy disk driver via PCMCIA. Unfortunatelly, the floppy driver doesn't work no longer. I could make Win98 recognize my PCMCIA adaptor do SD card. But DOS couldn't recognize it. And what I wanted to do with this laptop, was install DOS only on it, once I just want this to run DOS trackers. What I thought I could do is boot the laptop from the PCMCIA slot and install DOS from this.

So, is there some DOS driver or loader for it?

Thanks for your help!

akira^8GB
Offline
New York City

I think you should keep both DOS and Windows in its hard drive, it will make your life MUCH easier.

PULSELOOPER
Offline
São Paulo, Brazil

It really crossed my mind, but the problem is: what if Windows dies? How the hell will I boot this thing to install a new OS again?

akira^8GB
Offline
New York City

Dual boot, man. You can stil get into DOS if Windows fails.
But WHY should Win98 fail? tongue

Analog
Offline
Ciudad de méxico, MX

you can press shift+f5 or shift+f8 to skip the windows loading on startup.... only command line will be prompt.

i guess there's a way to always boot to the command line on W98, but don't quote me on that.

you can try freedos ( it recognize lots of hardware and drivers and stuff), and buy a USB to IDE adapter, extract the Hard Disk when you like to do some backup.

keep us updated!

Last edited by Analog (Oct 7, 2010 4:38 pm)

akira^8GB
Offline
New York City
Analog wrote:

i guess there's a way to always boot to the command line on W98, but don't quote me on that.

I quote you because it's true! smile
If you install Win98 and DOS5 you can always rely on DOS5 case Win98  goes to shit. This is how I used to have my machine.

PULSELOOPER
Offline
São Paulo, Brazil

but when you install windows 98 straight from the cd-rom, it install the version 7 of DOS, right?

well, anyway... supposing windows 98  goes to hell, do I still can boot to DOS command line pressing F8 (I know it sounds paranoid, but when I used windows 98, I ALWAYS had to format the damn PC).

Analog
Offline
Ciudad de méxico, MX

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article01-412

EDIT: if you do the thing on the link above, you may experiment problems with attributes

there's a command.

attrib - R -A -S -H

will make it vulnerable to dramatic changes.

if my memory serves me well. it has been 15 years.


yeah, windows 98 comes preinstalled with the lastest DOS at the time

you can check it by typing:

C:/> ver

Last edited by Analog (Oct 7, 2010 7:19 pm)

PULSELOOPER
Offline
São Paulo, Brazil

thanks Analog, this is a great tip.

but now I DO have SOME problem: put Adlib Tracker 2 on this thing and there is no sound! Even running it on windows.

Any clue? Does AT2 has some sound setup? I couldn't find any information on its manual.

All the sounds on Win98 are working fine.

PULSELOOPER
Offline
São Paulo, Brazil

Jesus Christ, this thing is weirder and weirder...

I followed the instructions to boot directly to DOS and now the sound works.

It was a lot easier installing workbench on my a600 than this. Damn it.

Analog
Offline
Ciudad de méxico, MX

you have sound on RAD?

there's is a possibility that ADT2 need to get the adress of the irq port or some weird thing like that.

check if on startup of ADT2 the program sees the opl3 port.

check the adlib tracker page, the message board have TONS of troubleshooting issues, mostly solved.



are you sure this thing have opl3?

EDIT: on mine RAD work flawless no configuration needed. Raw DOS install no drivers n stuff.
for ADT2 the opl latency on adtrack2.ini was tweaked in order to get more cleaner sound. maybe you have to make sure that it has opl3, and which port it is adressed. good luck!

Last edited by Analog (Oct 7, 2010 7:47 pm)

PULSELOOPER
Offline
São Paulo, Brazil

Yeah man, pure OPL3. smile

Too bad DOS doesn't recognize the mouse, so I can't use Fasttracker II.

Analog
Offline
Ciudad de méxico, MX

download MOUSE.COM

akira^8GB
Offline
New York City

I am having millions of problems with my Libretto.
I can, as of now, only run DOS 6.22 in it or FreeDOS. Trying to install Windows renders teh hard drive non functional FOR NO APARENT REASON. The drive is there and it has data and I can boot it from a virtual machine but the libretto says " DISK I/O ERROR"  or some such shit.

I also found out that after putting the drive in my otehr PC, whenever I modify the boot partition, it will not be bootable anymore on the Toshiba. Unless I use a VM running off the very drive.

It's driving me nuts. I want Win98 to be able to use my SD card reader, I can get it to boot and all in teh vrtual machien FROM the drive, but the Libretto refuses to recognize it as a boot device.

Analog, halp!


Pulselooper: Yep, it is MUCH EASIER to install an Amiga system than a PC DOS system tongue

Last edited by akira^8GB (May 27, 2011 9:00 pm)

PULSELOOPER
Offline
São Paulo, Brazil
akira^8GB wrote:

Pulselooper: Yep, it is MUCH EASIER to install an Amiga system than a PC DOS system tongue

Damn right!

As I told you, my Libretto70 HDD get a long with my mac via IDE/USB adapter. I just take off the damn thing, throw/take some files and put it back.

I think FreeDOS has some drivers for pcmcia cards, doesn't it? You could use a SD card pcmcia adapter. Running win98 on this thing will drive you crazy, the thing is too damn slow.

Last edited by PULSELOOPER (May 27, 2011 9:21 pm)

Analog
Offline
Ciudad de méxico, MX

USB/IDE FTW