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Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2025 7:15 pm
by dr_st
Master wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 5:59 pm I'm not a software developer by any stretch, but damn that's a lot of IFs. Guess .bat files don't do case statements?
Correct. Moreover, the errorlevel is actually a >= test, so you have to put them in high-to-low order, as in this batch file.
Reese Riverson wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 5:56 pm

Code: Select all

choice /n /c:123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy?z
What I don't understand is why you need all those errorlevels instead of just using choice /c:dwg. I guess you don't want it beeping at you?

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2025 8:06 pm
by Reese Riverson
I do recall originally doing just that, with /c:dwg, but what I don't recall is why I ended up doing it with all of those.
Image

Though I have tweaked it a bit:

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2025 2:50 pm
by EdgyRabbid
Reese Riverson wrote: Fri Oct 10, 2025 6:06 pm
Reese Riverson wrote: Fri Oct 10, 2025 4:59 pm Sounds like windows wasn't set as a path.

Can you:
cd windows
win
Monitor_1_20251010-120614-349.png
Alright finally have time for this again, for whatever reason my machine starts up with A: instead of C:. I’m not sure if I need to be in C: to do the commands you typed here? I tried typing them in and it just gives me an error for whatever reason. I might just restart the installation process, I think that would be smart actually….

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2025 2:53 pm
by PluMGMK
If it starts on A: that means you have a boot disk in the floppy drive. You need to eject it ;)

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2025 3:04 pm
by EdgyRabbid
Holy shit! Thanks! It works! I did it!!!

Thanks for fhe help, FIFO, Reese and Plum <3!

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2025 4:37 pm
by Steo
You can't be leaving bootable media inserted, bootable media usually like, boots. :mrgreen:

___

I haven't actually booted 3.1 in a few days now. I have been more bothered by the issues I'm having on Arch where I keep getting what seems like buffer underruns. I tried increasing these for now just to try get rid of the issue:

Code: Select all

api.alsa.period-size   = 256
api.alsa.headroom      = 8192
I'm not even sure if doing this makes sense, I'm too tired to think properly today and it was just annoying me that it kept having intermittent issues. It still seems to occur if I go nuts and start opening the likes of Tenacity, a MIDI editor, nuked-sc55, FamiStudio (the NES composition software). If a lot of things are open like that, the sound will get very delayed and I'll get those issues again, but that probably makes sense while so many things are open at the same time. It seems to have stopped doing it for now while just sensibly using programs.

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2025 11:04 pm
by PluMGMK
Guys, I have a quick favour to ask… For anyone who has DOS running on real hardware (not VMs), could you please try running this little COM program (assembled from this code)?
fpuchk10.zip
(682 Bytes) Downloaded 2 times
It should either run to completion, which looks like this (click it to see the animation):
Click it to see the animation, thanks a lot phpBB…
Click it to see the animation, thanks a lot phpBB…
Or lock up your system and require you to press reset (if this possibility makes you uncomfortable and not want to do this, I understand :oops2:).

If you could check that, and report back your motherboard and CPU, and how old they are, it would bring some more interesting data to a conversation I've been having on GitHub: https://github.com/PluMGMK/vbesvga.drv/ ... 3394129288 :)

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:12 am
by Reese Riverson
PluMGMK wrote: Mon Oct 13, 2025 11:04 pm Guys, I have a quick favour to ask… For anyone who has DOS running on real hardware (not VMs), could you please try running this little COM program (assembled from this code)?
fpuchk10.zip
It should either run to completion, which looks like this (click it to see the animation):
fpuchk10-vbox.gif
Or lock up your system and require you to press reset (if this possibility makes you uncomfortable and not want to do this, I understand :oops2:).

If you could check that, and report back your motherboard and CPU, and how old they are, it would bring some more interesting data to a conversation I've been having on GitHub: https://github.com/PluMGMK/vbesvga.drv/ ... 3394129288 :)
Could be a good excuse for me to drag out some systems again, though I'm gonna want to be sure all would be fine power supply wise, given the age of the capacitors at this point.
Image

Though I can dig out my 486 rig and run it, and even do the same for my Pentium I Windows 95 machine in DOS, and even the Pentium II Windows 98SE laptop in DOS mode. Any preferences or are you good with any or all three? I don't know about testing them right away, but I can work towards it.

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2025 10:05 am
by PluMGMK
I'd say start with the Pentium or Pentium II. It should work on a 486, but I was too lazy to code a proper 486 check and just have it check for the presence of a PCI BIOS. So your 486 machine may fail that check :oops2:

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2025 11:11 am
by Master
This is a very intriguing investigation you got going on here, so this is relating to the FPU exceptions you mentioned in another thread?

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:37 pm
by Reese Riverson
PluMGMK wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 10:05 am I'd say start with the Pentium or Pentium II. It should work on a 486, but I was too lazy to code a proper 486 check and just have it check for the presence of a PCI BIOS. So your 486 machine may fail that check :oops2:
Not if I use my 486 with actual PCI in it. :P

In that case, I'll aim to use the PII laptop first then. That'd be the easiest to hook up and run this on for ya.
Image

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:40 pm
by PluMGMK
Master wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 11:11 am This is a very intriguing investigation you got going on here, so this is relating to the FPU exceptions you mentioned in another thread?
Yes, this is my current rabbit hole. :oops:
Reese Riverson wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:37 pm Not if I use my 486 with actual PCI in it. :P
I don't know if 486-era PCI PCs had PCI BIOSes though. One does not necessarily imply the other!

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:54 pm
by Reese Riverson
PluMGMK wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:40 pm I don't know if 486-era PCI PCs had PCI BIOSes though. One does not necessarily imply the other!
The one I have does actually have a PCI BIOS, that I know for a fact. Here's the build of that system.
Image

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2025 12:31 am
by Steo
So far after a couple days, I've not been running into those buffer underrun issues anymore, even with several programs open. I still don't know why that was happening though, my computer should be more than good enough to not encounter this.

I'm still waiting for my SSD though too, and I'll likely be reinstalling both Arch and Windows anyway, then only trying to copy what I think is necessary.

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2025 1:06 am
by Reese Riverson
PluMGMK wrote: Mon Oct 13, 2025 11:04 pm Guys, I have a quick favour to ask… For anyone who has DOS running on real hardware (not VMs), could you please try running this little COM program (assembled from this code)?
fpuchk10.zip
It should either run to completion, which looks like this (click it to see the animation):
fpuchk10-vbox.gif
Or lock up your system and require you to press reset (if this possibility makes you uncomfortable and not want to do this, I understand :oops2:).

If you could check that, and report back your motherboard and CPU, and how old they are, it would bring some more interesting data to a conversation I've been having on GitHub: https://github.com/PluMGMK/vbesvga.drv/ ... 3394129288 :)
Well, I only get a blinking line with an unresponsive system.

So for the details: The screen it's stuck on:
The Blinking Line
The Blinking Line

I also have to use the VGA out on this machine, since the built in monitor has some weird issues, I've ruled out the GPU having anything to do with it, since the VGA out always worked flawlessly.

I can work towards testing other machines this weekend, if you wish.
Image

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2025 4:54 am
by Steo
I may be able to run it on some old laptop I happen to have here, if I can find a way to power it. It's an old ASUS Eee PC 701SD. I'm sure that should be old enough to be capable of running it at least. We will see if I can manage to hunt down a power adapter for it.

Off topic: Why am I just now discovering that "adapter" is the US spelling, and "adaptor" is the UK spelling. I always wondered if "adaptor" was a typo, always used the spelling "adapter". I suppose they're both English anyway. :fou:

I'll just use "Ameringlish" if I want to I guess, since I'm used to it. :mrgreen:

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2025 9:27 am
by PluMGMK
Well Reese, that's even more screwed up than what happens on my system! :shock: I have a suspicion that DOS 7 may be interfering here, which I will check out tonight...

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2025 1:32 pm
by Reese Riverson
PluMGMK wrote: Wed Oct 15, 2025 9:27 am Well Reese, that's even more screwed up than what happens on my system! :shock: I have a suspicion that DOS 7 may be interfering here, which I will check out tonight...
I suppose one option is to boot DOS 6.22 via a floppy disk and run the program under that to see if anything changes on the laptop?

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2025 1:50 pm
by PluMGMK
That'd be ideal, since DOS 6.22 is what I'm using. Thanks a million! :)

Re: IT... Computing....

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2025 10:03 pm
by EdgyRabbid
Alright, so apparently I fucked up editing the SMARTDRV.EXE file. I did was fifo told me.. but it wont boot up no more... the command comes up, but it says its a Bad Command. :/ anyone know how do I fix this?