Re: DDLINK: Easily move files between/To/From DOS systems

Posted on Yesterday, 14:12

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by DaveDDS

in DOS

in DOS

... So, these strange 'external file attributes' come from signing.1 Thanks, I kinda though it might be related - Most "modern" .ZIP managers don't mention if a .ZIP is signed! I think this is a problem with the affected UNZIP tools - PKWARE basically defined the .ZIP format, and signing was a " …

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Re: When PC became soulless for you?

Posted on Yesterday, 03:19

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by DaveDDS

in Milliways

in Milliways

I don't think I ever thought of a computer as "having a soul"... But I came into this business with lots of very low-level "fun things" to do, I build my first computers (before the PC was even a thing) - tried all kinds of different processors types (my fav is probably still the 6809). PC's were …

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Re: question about NAS storage

Posted on 2025-03-21, 23:16

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by DaveDDS

in Milliways

in Milliways

Network Attached Storage I've got at least 3 different ones - a couple of them show up as if they were any other computer on the network, complete with shared drives - these are configured by an on-board web interface. The other one has a web page where you can browse the internal drive and drag/ …

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Re: DosBox BootfloppyDisk

Posted on 2025-03-21, 03:01

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by DaveDDS

in DOSBox General

in DOSBox General

More updates to DBDOS I've been experimenting with a couple of DOS network that I've not had in use for years, things like: NEOS.NET, NSLAN and the Microsoft LAN client extracted from WFW... So, I've added the ability to randomize the ethernet MAC address to DBDOS .. this enables booting several …

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Re: Floppy Disks and Bad Sectors

Posted on 2025-03-20, 16:36

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So, probably there's some damage on the surface of the magnetic disk in the area of track 0 which can't be fixed. Worth doing a close visual inspection - although it's possible to have enough physical damage to make a track unusable, it's fairly rare - usually you can see physical damage as a more …

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Re: Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300 Won't Start When Hot

Posted on 2025-03-20, 14:12

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Agreed. clean cooling hardware, replace thermal paste.... But it sounds to me like there is a sensor that reads the temperature and early on BIOS determines its too hot and goes into low-power/shutdown mode ... but the OS you are booting doesn't detect this. Perhaps you are missing a driver of some …

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Re: Floppy Disks and Bad Sectors

Posted on 2025-03-19, 22:02

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Mind that you don't hold the magnet with only one of its poles pointing to the diskette and by moving the magnet over in random directions you're actually creating non-constant magnetic field. Yeah, but I've not actually SEEN a permanent magnet with both poles in the same place.... and most are …

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Re: Floppy Disks and Bad Sectors

Posted on 2025-03-19, 18:33

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

And what can guarantee that residual magnetism in some of the magnetic domains will get close to zero when using some "very special" electromagntic eraser, if there is a maximum (peak) in created alternating magnetic field? There is of course no guarantees, but you can take steps to make them as …

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Re: Floppy Disks and Bad Sectors

Posted on 2025-03-19, 16:41

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those neodymium magnets removed from a HDD actuator are not so strong (especially after some heat is used to melt the glue while removing them) as you think, otherwise with time they would corrupt the magnetic records on the HDD's platters. Actually... they might be stronger than you think.... In …

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Re: What Is Your Most Hated Operating System(opinion poll)?

Posted on 2025-03-19, 04:11

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by DaveDDS

in Milliways

in Milliways

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-03-19, 03:55: .. You can use a little program called incontrol, it turns off all the forced updating and allows you to lock the system to a specific version .. Thanks! - really helpful.

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Re: What Is Your Most Hated Operating System(opinion poll)?

Posted on 2025-03-19, 03:48

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by DaveDDS

in Milliways

in Milliways

... that said I have locked both my Windows 11 machines to remain on 23H2 and they wont update past that version ... I'm still avoiding Win10 as much as possible, and haven't even looked at Win11 yet ... So I'm not at all familiar with internal details ... I hate that Win10 forces updates ... and …

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Re: Floppy Disks and Bad Sectors

Posted on 2025-03-18, 18:38

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I use magnet from failed HDD - fits perfectly for 3.5" diskettes. Usually I touch the magnet to one side of the diskettes's plastic wrapper/envelope/case and manually spin the magnetic disk a couple of turns. Then on the other side. And finally format with NFORMAT.EXE usually results in healthy …

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Re: Battery rebuild for Compaq Armada E500 laptop

Posted on 2025-03-18, 17:02

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ok, it looks like calls 1+2 are in parallel, 3+4 are in parallel, 5+6 are in parallel and 7+8 are in parallel main power draws from the ends of 1+2 and 7+8 that are not connected to other cells. this is effectively the same 4 higher-current cells in series. The yellow and white wires are monitoring …

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Re: Battery rebuild for Compaq Armada E500 laptop

Posted on 2025-03-18, 14:05

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

... There are 5 wires. Black ->negative, Red -> positive Two white ones also connected to positive side of cells and one yellow one connected to negative side of cells. I soldered black & yellow to PCB but whenever I connect white to the place where it should go I get a bit of smoke. Tested with my …

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Re: Ways to run a polling background TSR when running games that override timer interrupt without chaining?

Posted on 2025-03-18, 13:04

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Then how do you return from your handler? The old handler will have already popped off the needed data so you can't use IRET... You can't return via a branch instead because you need to restore flags and the original segment atomically. My idea was a bit overly simplified - when the handler returns …

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Re: What Is Your Most Hated Operating System(opinion poll)?

Posted on 2025-03-18, 12:40

by

by DaveDDS

in Milliways

in Milliways

I used 8.1 for a long while, but had Startallback on it which killed off the tablet UI and restored the start menu along with other desktop functions. It wasn't a terrible experience not that different from Windows 10 honestly. I still run 7 on most of my desktops... when it gets to the point that …

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Re: Ways to run a polling background TSR when running games that override timer interrupt without chaining?

Posted on 2025-03-18, 12:25

by

by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You would need to set up the stack appropriately (with a return address, segment and flags) so that the original vector's IRET ends up "returning" to your code. I think you might do it a bit simpler than that - just save the original return address, and patch it to point at your code - then jump to …

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Re: This 5.25 disk is probably destroyed, right?

Posted on 2025-03-18, 08:53

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by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you have the disk reading again, and a known good drive ... I suggest using something like my IMAGEDISK tool to read it into a file so you can recreate it at any time. If it's a simple DOS disk, you might get away with my "much simpler" XDISK tool (The fact that they advise you to make backups …

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Re: DDLINK: Easily move files between/To/From DOS systems

Posted on 2025-03-17, 22:48

by

by DaveDDS

in DOS

in DOS

Thanks for your efforts. I was already fine with the KEYSUB solution. :thumbs_up: Good to know - I hope the additions I made so you can tell what state its in to enable/disable it in a batch file helped. (I guess it depends on how "system" the Alt+F2 is whether or not you can use it in an …

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Re: Is it possible to use a PIC K150 to program a BIOS EPROM chip?

Posted on 2025-03-17, 22:33

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by DaveDDS

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I actually FOUND the thing! - I *thought* I had seen it a a box at the back of the workshow a few months back, so I looked again and there it was! Attached photo is of the parallel port EEPROM programmer, sitting on top of my 6809 based EPROM programmer. Sorry, it was quite dark, and I wanted to …

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