5.1 crack [DONE]

[arjepsen]

Bruce, I think his problem is, that the CPU unit isn't booting from the floppies he's making. I suspect something in the process of how he made the floppies, but I think he's going to get the usb floppy emulator instead.

[Old School]

Hi,
I think the problem is you are feeding it a formatted drive. Use a "raw" unformatted Hard drive and I bet she goes.


Have a blessed day in Christ,
Mike W.

[arjepsen]

Uhm... I think his problem was booting the 5.1 install floppies he tried to make. Not booting from the HD...

[CentreFix]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the discussion. The cpu boots to load Ver 3.0 from the original floppies I had when I took ownership of the desk. I have to presume that these floppies are being read at boot up and for some reason mine are not. I have tried using a new sealed box of formatted 2HD Floppies and extracting 5.1 to them but no joy. I have to conclude that something is wrong with the method I'm using to prepare the floppies. I have ordered the USB/Floppy emulator and shall prepare a USB using the link given. Short of anything else I'm rather stumped still as to why the floppies I prepared aren't being read.

[Bruce Graham]

Hey CentrelFix;

I am not sure that the 5.1 floppies are installing. At least by how you are describing the installation process.
The monitor, when installing, does not function. Only the VMU on the console gives instructions. I don't get the sense that this is happening, again, from what you have written.

I would suggest you check your BIOS setting and make sure they are set for the d8b setting and not the Motherboard factory setting. The correct settings can be found here http://www.sonido-7.com/d8b/maintenance.html#Post1.

Have you installed a new battery? A bad battery is the cause of many problems. If the battery is week, even though you change and save your setting, they will not hold the change, It reverts back to factory setting. These setting, on all pages are very important to the console function correctly.

I think that once you get your Floppy Emulator you may have the same issue as it is not installing from the floppies (USB emulator).

Lastly, when I format a floppy it is format "A:\" not format "A as FAT". I am using Windows XP or DOS 6.2 (yes I'm an old guy). I am not sure what the "FAT" get you? This may also be a problem. Remember these machines where designed in the late 90's.

Hope this helps. Post back
Cheers
Bruce

[CentreFix]

Thanks Bruce et all for hanging in there for me!

Ok, I did install a new battery and have checked the bios and ensured all settings correct. I have also upgraded RAM to 256mb. Just to clarify, we are inserting the 5.1 disk 1 floppy in the drive BEFORE power-up and expecting things to happen from there. I say this only because that's what happens when I inserterted the Ver 3.0 disk 1 floppy that came with the desk and she went to install. I am presuming the upgrade to 5.1 is conducted in the same manner. (I did try inserting the 5.1 disk 1 floppy I prepared AFTER boot up and selecting the floppy drive icon from the desktop....all I got was a message saying "disk not formatted....format now?). Under Windows 7 I am formatting the floppy disk using the CMD prompt in the start menu and typing FORMAT A: and letting DOS do its thing. There is a line in DOS that allows a "Volume label, ENTER for none" so I just press ENTER. From there I extract the 5.1 prog to the floppy. All the files appear on the disk.

Like I said, upon boot-up with my 5.1 disk 1 in the floppy drive, I do not get any indication of installation....perhaps there is something really, really daft I'm doing wrong, as I'm left on the side hear while all you guys seem to have no problem!

[Bruce Graham]

Hey CentreFix;

So that clarifies things for me.

It would seem to me that the boot sequence is incorrect in the BIOS and thus id seeing the floppy but not reading it. I will try to install 5.1 of my second d8b and see what happens and report back.

Not sure why the BIOS changes but it has happened to me. I do recall have to change the boot sequence in order to install 5.1 on my main desk but that was 4 or 5 years ago and I'm old.

I'll report back. It may be a week or so.

And yes...... we insert the 1st floppy before turning things on.

Cheers
Bruce

[arjepsen]

Just to clarify, we are inserting the 5.1 disk 1 floppy in the drive BEFORE power-up and expecting things to happen from there. I say this only because that's what happens when I inserterted the Ver 3.0 disk 1 floppy that came with the desk and she went to install. I am presuming the upgrade to 5.1 is conducted in the same manner.

Yes, it should be the same - if it boots from your v.3 disk, but not from your 5.1 it means something is wrong with the 5.1 disk.

Under Windows 7 I am formatting the floppy disk using the CMD prompt in the start menu and typing FORMAT A: and letting DOS do its thing. There is a line in DOS that allows a "Volume label, ENTER for none" so I just press ENTER. From there I extract the 5.1 prog to the floppy. All the files appear on the disk.

Ok, first of all: There's no reason to format the disk under windows/dos first. The 5.1 disk image utilites you downloaded has an option to format the disks, and installs everything needed to boot from the disk.

There is one thing that you keep writing, that I think could be the problem:

From there I extract the 5.1 prog to the floppy

What exactly do you mean when you write "extract"?
Technically there's a big difference between letting the utility "write" the image on your floppy, and "extracting" the files to the floppy - I'm still a bit unsure whether you are doing one thing or the other.


Just to make absolutely, certainly, really really sure:
You should have 3 files:
d8b51_build445_disk1.exe
d8b51_build445_disk2.exe
d8b51_build445_disk3.exe

Forget the two last for now, and just let us see if you can make the first disk, and get it to boot. (if the CPU unit boots from your version 3 install floppy disk, then I don't think the bios settings are the problem).

You doubleclick the first exe file, and a window pops up with the program.
In that windows, the only things checked should be "writing on floppy" and "formatting".
(since formatting is checked, you don't need to do any previous formatting).
You should have your floppy drive selected in the "floppy" drop down menu.
And just 1 "number of set".

Is this what you have already done?
Of not, try it out and see if you can boot from it.

[CentreFix]

Hello guys,

Thanks for all your patience!

Firstly, bios settings are as per the settings page (300mhz cpu). I did try and change the setting to "enable" for drive A to see if that made a difference.

With regard to the floppy. I have tried exactly as per your instructions Arjepsen. The floppy is prepared using the process as you describe and selecting just 1 "number of set".

My only thoughts would be is there something about my particular cpu that prevents it from loading 5.1 and would a known version of 5.1 on a floppy used to load in another system amount to the same....this is a bit of a mystery to me to say the least!

[arjepsen]

Short version is:
If it boots from your version 3 disk 1 floppy, but not from your 5.1 disk 1 floppy - then there must be something wrong with the 5.1 floppy. (either physically wrong, or written in a wrong way)

The good thing about the floppy emulator is that it is much easier and faster to try things out with - and the usb drives doesn't go bad as fast as ye olde floppies does.