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Booting Windows 95 "C" setup CD from PCMCIA CD-ROM Drive?

C

[Chris]

Experienced Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2013
Messages
83
Location
Corona, New York, United States
So here's the deal, i upgraded the stock 450MB Seagate HDD to a 20GB IBM TravelStar with the OnStar DDO. Once i boot, it states that in order to install Windows 95 OSR 2.5 from a CD, i would need a startup floppy with the necessary CD-ROM drivers, and i only have a Panasonic external CD-ROM drive which has a PCMCIA SCSI/Sound card.

While i am aware that i cannot directly boot from the PCMCIA slot, i have attempted to modify a Windows 98 SE boot floppy to try to load the PCMCIA card driver and the CD-ROM driver. I don't know if there's anything else needed or what am i doing wrong.

Now the instructions on booting the Windows 95 Setup CD from the Panasonic CD-ROM shows this:

(16) Installing Windows 95 using CD-ROM player

(A) Installing Windows 95 using the KXL-D745

1. Install KXL-D745 DOS Driver.
2. Reboot system.
3. Insert Windows 95 CD-ROM in KXL-D745.
4. Run Windows 3.1(3.11) and run SETUP.EXE from Windows 95 CD-ROM
or run SETUP.EXE in DOS if Windows 3.1(3.11) is not present.
5. Windows 95 installation will complete; however,
the KXL-D745 DOS driver will currently be in use by Windows 95.
This does not yield optimum performance;
hence, the KXL-D745 Windows 95 driver should be installed.
(See step 6)
Click to expand...

And to configuring the drivers for DOS:

1 ASPI Manager

The following table lists the ASPI(Advanced SCSI Programming Interface)
managers available for the Sound/CD-ROM Interface Card.

(1) ASPISMGR.SYS
For the case when the computer has both Card Service and
Socket Service.

(2) ASPISDBK.SYS
For the case when the computer has only Databook CardTalk.

(3) ASPIS365.SYS
For the case when the computer has neither Card Service
nor Socket Service. This Driver directly controls the PCMCIA
controller chip(Intel i82365 100% compatible LSI).


1-1 Command Line Options

DEVICE = <path>\ASPISMGR.SYS [/PORT=<I/O base address>]
[/SOCKET=<slot No.>] [/INT=<IRQ level>] [/ADLIB] [/BOFF]

DEVICE = <path>\ASPISDBK.SYS [/PORT=<I/O base address>]
[/SOCKET=<slot No.>] [/INT=<IRQ level>] [/MEM=<base address>]
[/ADLIB]

DEVICE = <path>\ASPIS365.SYS [/PORT=<I/O base address>]
[/SOCKET=<slot No.>] [/INT=<IRQ level>] [/MEM=<base address>]
[/ADLIB] [/I365RST]

/PORT=XXX
Since an I/O port is needed for the Sound/CD-ROM Interface Card,
add this line and specify the base address at XXX using
a hexadecimal number. The Sound/CD-ROM Interface Card occupies
32 bytes of space starting with the specified base address.
The factory setting is 240h(ASPISDBK.SYS is 280h).
If the specified address is already being used, specify another
base address from the following addresses. Also, depending on the
computer, the I/O port may need to be specified in the Card Manager
(ASPISMGR.SYS, ASPISDBK.SYS). Refer to your computer manual.

220 240 260 280
(220h, 240h is not available in ASPISDBK.SYS)

/SOCKET=X
When you are using a personal computer with more than two PC
Card slots, add this line and specify the PC Card slot at X meaning
the PC Card slot you will insert the Sound/CD-ROM Interface Card in.
If you specify 0 or you don't specify the PC Card slot, the ASPI
manager searches all PC Card slots, and uses the first PC Card slot
available.

/ADLIB
ADLIB 388h-38Bh will be opened as second I/O port.

/INT=X
For IRQ, you may select: 3, 5, 7 or 10(A).
This option sets the IRQ level of the Sound/CD-ROM Interface Card
using a hexadecimal number. The factory setting is 5.
Make sure this number does not conflict with another device.
The IRQ level is not set without this option.
If you're using the SystemSoft Card Service, choose a number from
the "IRQ=" entries in the CSALLOC.INI file.

/MEM=XXXX (This option effective with ASPISDBK and ASPIS365 only)
Add this line and specify the memory space's base address to read
the card information by the segment address (hexadecimal number).
You need to exclude this specified address in the EMS "X" option
so that it will not overlap the region of EMS. If you don't specify
the base address, CE00 is applied, and 8 KB of memory from CE000
to CFFFF is used.

/BOFF (This option effective with ASPISMGR only)
Setting this option turns off the beep sound that is generated
when inserting or removing the Sound/CD-ROM Interface Card.

/I365RST (This option effective with ASPIS365 only)
After setting this option, PCMCIA controller chip(Intel i82365)
should be reset.
Click to expand...

2 CD-ROM Device Driver

CD-ROM device driver conforms to ASPI.

2-1 Command Line Options

DEVICE = <path>\KMECD.SYS [/d:<DriverName>]

/d:<DriverName>
This option assigns a driver name to this CD-ROM drive.
The driver name is the identification string to "/d:" option
of MSCDEX.EXE. The internal name of KMECD.SYS is PCMCIACD.
Click to expand...

3 MSCDEX.EXE

MSCDEX.EXE (Microsoft MS-DOS CD-ROM Extensions) enables your computer
to assign a logical drive number to your CD-ROM drive.

3-1 Command Line Options

<path>\MSCDEX.EXE /D:[DriverName] /L:[DriveLetter]

/D:[DriverName]
The driver name is a required parameter to communicate with the
CD-ROM drive. The internal name of KMECD.SYS is PCMCIACD, and
should be substituted for [DriverName].

/L:[DriveLetter]
The drive letter is an alphabetic character assigned to a CD-ROM
drive. If there is more than one CD-ROM drive, the alphabetic
characters are sequentially assigned starting with the entered
drive letter. If no drive letter is entered, the next available
alphabetic character is assigned.
Click to expand...

This is what my config.sys looks like for the boot floppy:

[menu]
menuitem=CD, Start computer with CD-ROM support.
menuitem=NOCD, Start computer without CD-ROM support.
menuitem=HELP, View the Help file.
menudefault=CD,30
menucolor=7,0

[CD]
DEVICE=EMM386.EXE on 8192 min=4096 b=4000h L=0 a=7 h=64 d=16 verbose altboot
DEVICE =ASPIS365.SYS /PORT=240h /SOCKET=0 /INT=5 /MEM=CE00 /ADLIB /I365RST
DEVICE=KMECD.SYS /d:pCMCIACD
device=himem.sys /testmem:eek:ff
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=btdosm.sys
device=flashpt.sys
device=btcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=aspi2dos.sys
device=aspi8dos.sys
device=aspi4dos.sys
device=aspi8u2.sys
device=aspicd.sys /D:mscd001

[NOCD]
device=himem.sys /testmem:eek:ff

[HELP]
device=himem.sys /testmem:eek:ff

[COMMON]
files=10
buffers=10
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
devicehigh=ramdrive.sys /E 2048
lastdrive=z
Click to expand...

The chipset on the Targa for the PCMCIA slots is a Cirrus Logic CL-PD6720-QC-B, so i don't know if i need the DOS driver for the drivers to load properly, or where am i doing wrong or what am i missing?

Screenshots of the folder containing the files for the CD-ROM, and the disk contents:

Win98A_zps592e5cde.png


Win98B_zps3bdd482b.png


Laptop PCMCIA ports & the CD-ROM drive

0D6ACC26-E43C-4361-ACE5-734972955C31_zpskejp9crn.jpg


5E470449-4EC8-40EE-9E32-484665045160_zps2ytt2xjc.jpg


050A1C0A-8C2D-4316-B066-87680E2D03C8_zps9cht2qav.jpg


EDIT: Not sure if this may belong to the software section even though the focus is to get the CD-ROM drive & card drivers working from a boot floppy so that the hardware is recognized properly.
 
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I installed Win95 OSR2 on a P1 laptop using an Adaptec MA356 parallel to SCSI adapter and a SCSI CD-ROM. As I recall, my boot floppy had the usual DOS utilities, the ASPI driver and the ASPICD driver. Run SETUP from the CD.

Win95/98 is useful in that if you have a DOS driver installed for any device, it will tend to carry through when the GUI starts.
 
Did you alter the mscdex line in the autoexec.bat file to reflect to same device name? It's probably still set to the default mscd001. Also put your device drivers after himem.sys in the config.sys file.
 
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So now i made a new boot diskette. Turns out i needed to get the appropiate PCMCIA drivers configured, and now i got the PCMCIA slots to work properly from the boot diskette, and the CD-ROM SCSI/Sound card is now recognized properly, however, it still doesn't seem to detect the actual CD-ROM itself and i have already checked the connections and tested it on my Inspiron 5000, which it detects fine and a CD-ROM icon with drive letter F shows up on "My Computer"

Here's the autoexec.bat contents:
@ECHO OFF
MCDRM\MSCDEX.EXE /D:pCMCIACD
echo
Click to expand...

and the config.sys:
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:ON
DEVICE=EMM386.EXE 8192
DEVICE=CARDSOFT\SSCIRRUS.EXE
DEVICE=CARDSOFT\SSCIR12V.EXE
DEVICE=CARDSOFT\CS.EXE /IRQ A
DEVICE=CARDSOFT\CSALLOC.EXE CARDSOFT\CSALLOC.INI
DEVICE=CARDSOFT\CARDID.EXE CARDSOFT\CARDID.INI
DEVICE=MCDRM\ASPISMGR.SYS /PORT=240 /INT=5 /ADLIB
DEVICE=MCDRM\KMECD.SYS /D:pCMCIACD
LASTDRIVE=F
Click to expand...

Here's a video showing the issue:

As i said, using a Windows 95 "A" install floppy set isn't a viable option for me as i have OnTrack's DDO installed on the 20GB HDD that i installed on the laptop (natively it can detect up to 4GB)..can only use a "B" or "C" but would prefer using "C" due to USB 1.1 support (and i have generic drivers for most USB devices) as i plan on getting a PCMCIA USB 1.1 card...
 
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Add the attached program to your A: drive (it's not large) and then run TASPI when you get to the command prompt. It does an inventory of ASPI devices that are seen by your SCSI controller.
 

Attachments

  • TASPI.ZIP
    7.9 KB · Views: 2
Does your Win98SE have its own 32-bit driver for the SCSI card? That could be the cause of the difference. If you attach a different SCSI device, does it get seen by the DOS-mode driver? What are the DIP switches on the bottom of the drive for?
 
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Chuck(G) said:
Does your Win98SE have its own 32-bit driver for the SCSI card? That could be the cause of the difference. If you attach a different SCSI device, does it get seen by the DOS-mode driver? What are the DIP switches on the bottom of the drive for?
Click to expand...

I don't have any other SCSI devices at hand at the moment, but i did find this spec sheet:
ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/panasonic/business/office/spec_sheets/kxld745.pdf

as for the dip switches, #'s 1-3 are for setting the SCSI ID, #1 is to enable or disable the terminator as according to the manual:
http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/KXLD745.PDF
 
This probably isn't going to help, but set switch 4 on--you don't have any other SCSI devices attached and the CD-ROM is at the end of the SCSI "chain". Use any other setting for switches 1-3, except 111 (7), which is normally reserved for the adapter itself.

TASPI checks the response from the IDENTIFY command, but your SCSI drive isn't responding (at least to the adapter and drive you've installed). So check your DOS drivers again.

By timothy, I really hate PCMCIA! I've got a 10baseT NIC+modem card here, for example. If I install it fresh, it works fine. But the second time I boot, it's gone... Never figured that one out.
 
Chuck(G) said:
This probably isn't going to help, but set switch 4 on--you don't have any other SCSI devices attached and the CD-ROM is at the end of the SCSI "chain". Use any other setting for switches 1-3, except 111 (7), which is normally reserved for the adapter itself.

TASPI checks the response from the IDENTIFY command, but your SCSI drive isn't responding (at least to the adapter and drive you've installed). So check your DOS drivers again.

By timothy, I really hate PCMCIA! I've got a 10baseT NIC+modem card here, for example. If I install it fresh, it works fine. But the second time I boot, it's gone... Never figured that one out.
Click to expand...


In the end, I ended up "cheating" by putting the 20GB HDD on the 5000 and installing Windows 95 from there. Then I copied the entire CD contents to the HDD and reinstalled the HDD back on the Targa and reinstalled 95 again. After installing the SCSI card and cd rom drivers from within 95, it seems to complain about a resource conflict. I'll post a few pics later when I get home. Here's a screenshot from the video I was making of installing 95 onto the pc



Now to find a replacement CCFL or some way to improvise to get some sort of backlight on the Targa.
 
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