Several Win 95 Questions

[Hoko]

Starting to come back to me...

SETUP

Standard Setup

Primary Master Hard Disk

Type: User <-- Can this be changed to "Auto"?

I don't see any "Boot Sequence" definitions? AFAICR, using the "Auto Detect IDE Devices" (when "Standard Setup" set to "Auto" if possible) allows the BIOS to look at the Device and set parameters accordingly. As for CD-ROM being listed, I can't actually remember, but I believe it needs to be or else the CD-ROM drivers need loaded in Win9x. It seems I remember that using the "Auto-Detect" that it wouldn't "stick" unless you Saved -AND- Exited. BTW, how do you "Save"/"Exit" - a Function Key(s) or a Screen Selection?

Would it be possible for you to press the "Pause" Key when you first turn on the PC or in the BIOS Setup Screen to get the BIOS Version/Identifier? It would help in determining a BIOS update. You may need that to support (e.g.) larger HDD or faster CPU.

Look here, scroll down to "Florida-TG" for "examples" of what you should see -

http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/trigem/bios/list.html

Notice to all - This info accurately provided will/may assist others with older eMachines (and maybe Gateways) in the future.

edit - AHA!!!! Confusion OVER!!!

Take THIS Link, insert into the NEXT link and set "From Language"="Korean" for translation! Voila! Your BIOS Settings!

http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/TriGem/profile/FLORIDA-C/FLOC_cmos.htm

http://translate.google.com/

I'm trying to get it into some kind of "stored" format now...

Looks like I didn't include a few details. In "Optimum" mode, for the "Primary Master Hard Disk", the Type: is set to "Auto" and the "Optimum" boot sequence is

1 ATAPI CDROM

2 Floppy

3 IDE HDD

I will go over everything again this evening and make sure everything is in there. I will try the pause key for finding the version too. After leaving the BIOS setup screen there is a screen where you can choose to save changes or not.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Hoko

[dencorso]

This precious old tool can retrieve the full BIOS identification string and date: DETECT, but it must be run from true DOS, not a Windows DOS Box.

[Hoko]

This precious old tool can retrieve the full BIOS identification string and date: DETECT, but it must be run from true DOS, not a Windows DOS Box.

So if I restart Win95 in MS-DOS mode, I can run it from there?

[LoneCrusader]

This precious old tool can retrieve the full BIOS identification string and date: DETECT, but it must be run from true DOS, not a Windows DOS Box.

So if I restart Win95 in MS-DOS mode, I can run it from there?

Yes, or press F8 while the machine is first booting up and choose "Command Prompt only" from the Startup Menu.

[Hoko]

Last BIOS post updated and will run BIOS identifier program tomorrow.

[submix8c]

To clarify your BIOS Settings post above with reference to the translated Korean page...

NOT "Default Original" and "Optimal". Note that the word "Default" is beneath a Column labeled "Step 1" and the words "Original" and "Optional" are beneath a Column labeled "Step 2" and notice the Description for each.

With "Optimal", all ATA Connections will be set to Auto, meaning YOU don't change and IT will "detect". IOW, it WILL detect the HDD and CD-ROM properly. Notice the other "adjustable" options - When you OVERRIDE it (i.e. NOT "Auto") then YOU must supply the correct setup. For the "Legacy USB" it ONLY applies if you have a USB Mouse/Keyboard instead of PS/2. Standard Default in nearly all Computers is PS/2 (except those not HAVING PS/2 ports) and is Normal, usually ONLY manually changed when the person that purchased it also purchase a USB Keyboard and/or Mouse which are/were not provided with Original Purchase - Normal.

I can (nearly) guarantee that if you have PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard and use the "Optimal" and save it then the next time you enter the BIOS the "Original" and "Optimal" will be identical.

P.S. Your HDD's should be set to "Auto" anyway - that's what the "normal and Standard" way of setting them up is. Oh, and fair warning. If you change any connected ATA device you had BETTER reset the Devices because the last setting (e.g. for PREVIOUS HDD of different size/type) is "stuck". Trust me on this - brother had one of those "HDD Trays" to swap HDD while turned off and you HAD to cause it to "re-find" the devices when Power On. (Very weird...)

[Hoko]

To clarify your BIOS Settings post above with reference to the translated Korean page...

NOT "Default Original" and "Optimal". Note that the word "Default" is beneath a Column labeled "Step 1" and the words "Original" and "Optional" are beneath a Column labeled "Step 2" and notice the Description for each.

With "Optimal", all ATA Connections will be set to Auto, meaning YOU don't change and IT will "detect". IOW, it WILL detect the HDD and CD-ROM properly. Notice the other "adjustable" options - When you OVERRIDE it (i.e. NOT "Auto") then YOU must supply the correct setup. For the "Legacy USB" it ONLY applies if you have a USB Mouse/Keyboard instead of PS/2. Standard Default in nearly all Computers is PS/2 (except those not HAVING PS/2 ports) and is Normal, usually ONLY manually changed when the person that purchased it also purchase a USB Keyboard and/or Mouse which are/were not provided with Original Purchase - Normal.

I can (nearly) guarantee that if you have PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard and use the "Optimal" and save it then the next time you enter the BIOS the "Original" and "Optimal" will be identical.

P.S. Your HDD's should be set to "Auto" anyway - that's what the "normal and Standard" way of setting them up is. Oh, and fair warning. If you change any connected ATA device you had BETTER reset the Devices because the last setting (e.g. for PREVIOUS HDD of different size/type) is "stuck". Trust me on this - brother had one of those "HDD Trays" to swap HDD while turned off and you HAD to cause it to "re-find" the devices when Power On. (Very weird...)

On my BIOS screen "Default" is the name given to the section containing the "Original" file and the "Optimal" file. When you open the Original file it says "Restore Old values?" and I've noticed the "Old values" seem to change when I change settings in the BIOS, so I don't think they put in a static set of values that would be truly called "Default". I think I'm going to try running the "Optimal" setting after I've got everything running right and have run programs for a while just to see if it makes a difference.

[Hoko]

This precious old tool can retrieve the full BIOS identification string and date: DETECT, but it must be run from true DOS, not a Windows DOS Box.

So if I restart Win95 in MS-DOS mode, I can run it from there?

Yes, or press F8 while the machine is first booting up and choose "Command Prompt only" from the Startup Menu.

Ok, I am at the command prompt with the detect program on cd. I'm trying D>setup, D>detect, not sure what to do here. Never ran DOS programs. Am I supposed to use a floppy?

Edited April 25, 2013 by Hoko

[LoneCrusader]

This precious old tool can retrieve the full BIOS identification string and date: DETECT, but it must be run from true DOS, not a Windows DOS Box.

So if I restart Win95 in MS-DOS mode, I can run it from there?

Yes, or press F8 while the machine is first booting up and choose "Command Prompt only" from the Startup Menu.

Ok, I am at the command prompt with the detect program on cd. I'm trying D>setup, D>detect, not sure what to do here. Never ran DOS programs.

I assume you are at the "C:\>" prompt?

If so type "D:" (or the letter of the CD drive if not D) without the quotes and press ENTER.

Should get a "D:\>" prompt.

Then type "DETECT" and press ENTER.

[Hoko]

This precious old tool can retrieve the full BIOS identification string and date: DETECT, but it must be run from true DOS, not a Windows DOS Box.

So if I restart Win95 in MS-DOS mode, I can run it from there?

Yes, or press F8 while the machine is first booting up and choose "Command Prompt only" from the Startup Menu.

Ok, I am at the command prompt with the detect program on cd. I'm trying D>setup, D>detect, not sure what to do here. Never ran DOS programs.

I assume you are at the "C:\>" prompt?

If so type "D:" (or the letter of the CD drive if not D) without the quotes and press ENTER.

Should get a "D:\>" prompt.

Then type "DETECT" and press ENTER.

Actually I restarted in DOS and it is a C:\WINDOWS> prompt and the commands are not working

[LoneCrusader]

Actually I restarted in DOS and it is a C:\WINDOWS> prompt and the commands are not working

No DOS CDROM driver is loaded. You will have to load a DOS CDROM driver or copy the DETECT.EXE to your hard drive (C:\).

Since you have no DOS experience, the easiest way to get a DOS CDROM driver loaded would be to use a Windows 9x Boot Disk... But the best thing to do for now is place DETECT.EXE in the root of the C:\ drive.

When you get the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, type "cd\" and press ENTER. Then type "DETECT" and press ENTER.

[dencorso]

On running, DETECT creates two new files: BIOS.BIN and BIOS.TXT... the former is an image of the actual BIOS, and the latter containd the results of the detection in text format. So, C:\ is a good place to run DETECT from, because, then it'll create those two files in C:\... Afterwards both may be zipped and attached here, although zipping and attaching BIOS.TXT should suffice.

[Hoko]

Actually I restarted in DOS and it is a C:\WINDOWS> prompt and the commands are not working

No DOS CDROM driver is loaded. You will have to load a DOS CDROM driver or copy the DETECT.EXE to your hard drive (C:\).

Since you have no DOS experience, the easiest way to get a DOS CDROM driver loaded would be to use a Windows 9x Boot Disk... But the best thing to do for now is place DETECT.EXE in the root of the C:\ drive.

When you get the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, type "cd\" and press ENTER. Then type "DETECT" and press ENTER.

Not quite sure how to place detect.exe in the "Root" of the C:\ drive. I placed it in a folder on the C drive but not working yet.

[LoneCrusader]

Not quite sure how to place detect.exe in the "Root" of the C:\ drive. I placed it in a folder on the C drive but not working yet.

"Root" means the "Root folder," or in other words just in C:\ without being inside another folder. The "\" without any "named" folder after it stands for the root folder.

You'll have to read up on basic DOS commands and PATH. It's essential to really knowing how your computer works, not just with Windows 9x, but with any system.

A drive must be partitioned and formatted. Then the entire file and folder(directory) structure is built from the "root" folder C:\. So, in other words, WINDOWS\ is a subfolder of the root folder, and \SYSTEM is a subfolder of the WINDOWS folder. The PATH to this location would be C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ and you get there by typing CD\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. "CD" is "Change Directory" and the backslashes \ denote deeper folder(directory) levels.

In order to run a program, you must first navigate to the folder(directory) where it resides before you issue the command to run it. Take a look at the "Properties" of some of the Shortcuts in the Start Menu, say for Notepad or the Calculator for example. Notice the paths given to each program and how Windows automates this.

[Hoko]

Winsock2 says it needs TCP/IP, how do I get that?