How to install freedos onto a floppy disk

[super7800]

As the title suggests, how do I do this (How to install freedos onto a floppy disk)? I have never used dos before, and floppy disks very few times. I need it on floppy since I cannot access the bios (it is likely corrupt). I cannot use a hard drive, usb, or cd so please don't recommend those, as the motherboard supports booting off of only floppy or hdd, and the bios won't allow any hdd to be used since it is currently broken. It is for a tds7104 oscilloscope with custom motherboard (windows 98)

I need it to run the killcmos program. How would I go about creating a bootable freedos floppy to run this program? I have tried using winimage with no luck, and Rufus doesn't seem to support floppy. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[super7800]

Ok so I think I figured it out with Ms-dos. Had to use windows 8.1 and not 10. I've decided to try to re install the bios. How would I do this given the files pictured? I tried copying them to the floppy but I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Pictured is current output from the scope, and the bios files/help files.

 

[super7800]

Is this a Computer that is running Software for a O'Scope? There is no Floppy attached to a TDS7104 O'Scope?

Best case is to locate the battery, remove it (or set jumper for clear CMOS settings if Motherboard has such jumpers)
and then power back up. It will correct the values to default.

What is Manufacture of Motherboard? I'd start there and find a Manual for it on how to clear CMOS settings.


Larry

Thanks for the response Larry.

the bios is completely messed up. it will not enter setup under any circumstances. I have tried:
-motherboard jumper, in both positions + removed
-F2, F10, ESC, ctrl alt del, randomly mashing keys
-new battery
-waiting 2 hours with no power and no battery
-new ram, known good, same size
-checked all power supply rails
with no dice. will not let me access bios settings.

here is what happens:

Intel Corporation BL440ZX Motherboard
Serial Number: XXXX

Intel Celeron Processor, 500 MHz
128 MB System Ram

Legacy Keyboard .. Detected
Legacy Mouse ... Detected
USB Legacy ... Enabled

if i press esc here a color splash screen shows up for a few seconds. this is not the correct Tektronix one. it seems to be a default intel one.

PXE-M04: Initializing network boot device using interrupt 18h.

B: Drive Error
Press F1 to Resume

After Pressing F1:

Intel LandDesk Service Agent II, version 0.99j

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting LANDesk Sercie Agent II

also in there is two short beeps, and when i press f1 it beeps a third time

there is a floppy, disk drive, and USB port. from my understanding only the floppy is usable without bios being messed with. It is for a TDS7104 oscilloscope, which seems to be a Frankenstein machine made of parts from both a TDS7054 and a TDS7104 (body tds7054, front panel + aquisition board tds7104). from an ebay for parts purchase. To reiterate: this is a common problem. i can link to a dozen other posts atleast with this issue. None of them post an ultimate solution. Hopefully i will be the first one (but its doubtful) as far as i know it does'nt even have the right bios (but why would i even get this far since others who have used non tek bios have bricked it), since the splash screen seems to be wrong (appears when esc is pressed), but I may be mistaken.

 

[krebizfan]

What system are you using to create the freedos floppy? I had no problems making the FD 1.2 bootable floppy with Winimage and a USB floppy.

 

[Timo W.]

You don't need to install it onto floppy disk (I don't think you even can). Either download the FreeDOS boot disk - which is ready to go, or get the CD-ROM image and do "sys a:" once booted on any other system, which will make the floppy in a: bootable.

I have tried using winimage with no luck

Details would help. Did WinImage not work, or was the PC not able to boot from the floppy disk? In the latter case, the BIOS you think is corrupt may not default to 3.5" HD for the floppy disk and therefore fail to boot. The disk might be just fine.

Have you checked the mainboard for a "Clear CMOS" jumper? Pretty much any board should have that.

 

[ajacocks]

Welcome to the forum @super7800 !

- Alex

 

[super7800]

So I managed to get ms dos working, and launched the iflash program provided when I downloaded the bios file. I then updated the bios as shown in the pictures. However this changed nothing, the bios setup menu is still inaccessible, both by f2 and using jumper on mobo. Also, the "incorect" splash screen still shows when I press esc. Not sure if glitch or not, but when messaging other owners theirs say tektronix, and there is a file called logodata.usr that when opened shows correct logo.

I never did try to run the killcmos program. Perhaps I should try that next? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Plasma]

Here a program to restore the TDS7104 CMOS settings to factory default: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tek-csa7404-repair-project/msg3095992/#msg3095992

Make sure the CMOS clear jumper is not set and you have a good battery installed.

 

[super7800]

Wow. Thanks. That fixed it i think. Still seems kinda off, i.e. says resume9 (unless it's supposed to say that?). Thank you so much. Hopefully now Frankensteins monster actually works lol.

 

[Plasma]

I think the "resume9" is just a side effect of that message displaying without clearing the screen first. If you set the date/time in Windows, it might go away.