older computer needed for project

[j0ckser]

i posted this earlier as part of another thread, but was advised to repost in its own thread.

i have an older desktop (IBM Personal Computer 300PL) with both 3.5" floppy and CD drives. there is no operating system. i have both Windows XP and 98SE available to install.

when i boot initially, i get a "no operating system message press F1 to continue" message. i inserted the O/S CD (same response to both), the drive whirrs for a while, then - nothing; or more precisely, the same no o/s message.

i am doing this to make use of a database built in Microsoft Access; it won't run on Windows 7, but will on XP or 98SE. extra work and income is involved, so it is important that i get this program running.

any thoughts / ideas would be appreciated.

BTW any attempt to use other keys during boot is met with beeps, and a screen refresh to a crude graphic showing that F1 is the only option.

per ardua ad astra

 

[xit]

Are you booting from the proper drive in the bios? Make sure your cd drive is first on boot up selection. If your cd drive is first on boot, could be bad drive.??

Another thought is Some flavors of Win7 have the ability to run XP mode which could possibly run your program. I have done this many times successfully with older programs on Win7.

 

[j0ckser]

thank you xit.

the primary boot appears to be the 3.5 floppy drive. the drive may be bad, and then the whole issue becomes moot.

your other idea of running XP sounds interesting. how do i accomplish this?

per ardua ad astra

 

[xit]

Can you not change your cd drive as first boot?, that is what is needed to boot from a Windows disk.?

You mention Win7, do you have a computer with Win7? and if so what version is it?

 

[strongm]

As I said in the other thread, have you tried F1 during boot, then Start Options I believe, in order to change boot options.

 

[edfair]

It is likely that this system does not have CD boot capability. IIRC those I worked with were 98 and I loaded the OS through a floppy disk with CD drivers.

My standard at the time was to create a DOS primary partition with CD access, put the 98 install stuff on C:, and put 98 on D:. It was so ingrained that I made floppies for every install set I dealt with.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[rclarke250]

There are many models of IBM 300PL. What is the Machine type, and model number...Will be on a little tag on front of computer, and will be something like 6862-A7U the 6862 is the machine type, and the A7U is the model, with this info, I can look up the unit and see what options it has in BIOS. Also, most of these units came with either NT4, Win 95,or Win 98. And usually you had to boot from diskette as it didn't support booting from CD, also it will not support more than 768MB of ram, also limiting what OS you wanted to use. As to using XP mode in windows 7 try Here.

 

[strongm]

Interesting. I was under the impression that, whilst the the 300PL had multiple models, there was only one machine type, the 6565 (unlike the plain 300 series which had loads of different machine types), and that along with the related 300GL it did have the ability to boot from CD (where a CD drive was installed).

F1, Start Options is still the place to look.

 

[xwb]

If you have W7 starter or home edition, you could use either virtual box or vmware player to create an XP VM. That is similar to XP mode, which is just MS virtual PC running XP but not requiring a licence.

 

[strongm]

>which is just MS virtual PC running XP

Not quite, actually. It is a special version of XP which has additional patches to allow RemoteApp to work, which no other version of XP supports.

 

[rclarke250]

6862/6892 were IBM 300PL that came with PII cpu, max 382 MB ram, and did support bootable CD, and had a cdrom drive. Also, the OP should check the media type, as XP will be on a DVD, and unless the drive was updated to a DVD drive, it wouldn't be able to read the XP disk, if this is the machine type, there was also a couple before this, that had Pentium MMX cpu's in them, but can't recall the machine type for those. And as long as the 98SE disk is the Install media, and not an upgrade disk, it should work.

 

[xit]

rclarke250, you say XP will be on a dvd, why, it came on cd from Microsoft? Am I missing something?

 

[goombawaho]

I believe that was a misstatement because XP fits on a CD, originally came on a CD, but COULD be put on a DVD if that's all you had available. It would work either way, but for older systems, best to have it on CD for compatibility with older optical drives. I believe Media Center Editions were too big for CD and they DID come on a DVD.

 

[rclarke250]

Thanks guys. Too many disks on the shelf, and too many late nights. So assuming his boot order is right, and until the OP posts back, we won't know why it isn't booting from the CD rom.

 

[EmuDan]

Try this link:
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.ehow.com/how_6098949_change-order-bios-ibm-300pl.html[/url]

If the CD drive does not appear in the list, that may be a sign that it is defective.

Dan

Remember, I'm not swearing AT you. I'm swearing WITH you.

 

[goombawaho]

If the CD drive does not appear in the list, that may be a sign that it is defective.

Yeah, failure is always an option as opposed to USER error.

This project is getting more expensive if a new CD drive is required. But, there are tons of old machines sitting around that have working (old school) 48X CD-R drives in them that would do the trick.

 

[strongm]

So, EMuDan, just to check: your post suggests pressing F1 then selecting Start Options ...

>6862/6892 were IBM 300PL that came with PII cpu

Just goes to show I shouldn't trust my limited set of manuals.