Tecra 500CDT Windows98 / USB, CD-RW, WiFi problem \ VOGONS

Tecra 500CDT Windows98 / USB, CD-RW, WiFi problem

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First post, by zetatron2000

Posted on 2017-05-15, 16:07

zetatron2000 Offline

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Hello everyone,

A month ago, I bought an old Toshiba Tecra 500CDT laptop, and so began trying to make it my retro-gaming platform.
I will begin by describing steps that I made or tried to make, maybe my story will help someone, or somebody else had similar stories to share or somehow made it work and would like to say how; in the end, I will specify my inquiries and ask the questions that await answers.
The version I have has a CD drive and a possibility to connect an external floppy (which I haven’t found anywhere yet).
There are 2 cardbus slots, and no USB ports. BIOS doesn't have an option to boot from CD, so the first issue was to install OS.

I unmounted HDD and connected it to my desktop PC through USB/IDE adapter; in that way, I was able to copy files.
Unfortunately, PLOP didn't help, as the laptop still couldn't boot from CD.
I have cardbus USB adapter, so I tried PLOP with PCMCIA support - still with no luck, as the bootable USB sticks didn't work.
Finally, I found a thread here suggesting to install Windows from folder on HDD.
I used RMPrepUSB to format hdd, made it bootable and copy Win98 boot disk content. Now, the laptop lets me choose to install windows from CD
or start MS-DOS with/without CD-ROM support. Although, it still cannot boot/install from a CD, the two other options begun working fine, so finally I could

1CD WIN98SETUP
2SETUP /IO

and windows98se was installed.

The problem I try to solve now is file transfer. Right now, the only way is to either copy to HDD directly from other PC using USB/IDE adapter or burn CD-R.
I bought 10 Verbatim CD-RW, but Tecra doesn't see burned content. My new laptop and desktop read those CD-RW fine, so maybe there are some special settings how to burn CD-RW so Win98 can read them?
With CD-RW failure I installed NUSB drivers and tried to connect pendrive through CardBus USB adapter.
Ufortunately the OS didn't recognise any old pendrives (they were 1GB though) or Microsoft Keyboard KC-0405 I connected. It was looking for drivers, added them as unrecognised devices and then the system freezes.
Next I tried WiFi connection, I have bought D-Link DWL-G630 and EZ Connect SMC2835W wireless cardbus adapters, both did not work.
D-Link once listed some wireless networks around, but got extremely unstable and bluecreened like crazy.
SMC installed its utility but couldn't see network card, and minimise each time I tried to open it.

So now my last ideas are to buy cardbus/LAN card or to set up dial-up server and connect with XJ3288 PC card which I got bundled with laptop and seems to work.

If you have any ideas how to make USB / CD-RW / WiFi working on Win98SE on that laptop please let me know, as I'm already at my limit.
Thanks

Reply 1 of 7, by darry

Posted on 2017-05-15, 16:33

darry Offline

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I bought 10 Verbatim CD-RW, but Tecra doesn't see burned content

CD-RW (rewritable) are notoriously incompatible with older drives that are not specifically designed to read them . Assuming your CD drive can read pressed media, it will likely be able read good quality CD-R (writable) .

Reply 2 of 7, by zetatron2000

Posted on 2017-05-17, 20:16

zetatron2000 Offline

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Yes, you're right, as it can, though burning a cd-r each time & each change isn't the most convienient solution, not to mention it's only one way ticket file transfer.
Still, I hope there is another method for both way file transfer?
As for now, I'm looking for CardBus LAN card with win98 drivers. Let's hope it works.

Reply 3 of 7, by tayyare

Posted on 2017-05-18, 09:06

tayyare Offline

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Location: Turkey

your best bet might be to find a working card bus USB adapter with Windows 98 drivers. This will really widen your options afterwards: USB card readers, USB HDDs, USB opticals, USB FDD, etc.

NUSB is not working and not recognizing anything that you inserted into your current USB adapter probably means something is wrong with it, since I have generally +90% success with NUSB/Windows 98 with pen drives (Sandisk Cruiser, Kingston and many no-brand 2 to 8GB ones), card readers and USB HDDs.

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000

Reply 4 of 7, by brassicGamer

Posted on 2017-05-18, 10:04

brassicGamer Offline

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I've got a Tecra 740CDT and have had the precise same issues. I ended up installing a PCMCIA ethernet card I had lying around and it works great with my Win2k3 server after installing dsclient9x.msi. Much faster than USB 1.2 as well. I eventually 'upgraded' to an 802.11b card for wire-free retro goodness.

Check out my blog and YouTube channel for thoughts, articles, system profiles, and tips.

Reply 5 of 7, by lolo799

Posted on 2017-05-18, 10:32

lolo799 Offline

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The floppy drive for your Toshiba model is the ZA1215P02, they're not completely impossible to find, but not always working anymore either or not sold with the cable.

In the Bios, is the PC Card Controller Mode sets to Cardbus/16bit or PCIC compatible?
That could be a cause of problems with your Cardbus cards.

You should get a PCMCIA Compact Flash adapter and a CF card, that will solve all your problem for transferring files.

PCMCIA Sound, Storage & Graphics

Reply 6 of 7, by Arctic

Posted on 2017-05-18, 12:45

Arctic Offline

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You are not alone with problems on this machine.
My cd drive died within the first day of use and since then I was not able to replace it with any other drive.

I also had to buy an external Floppy drive, which was the MOST important investment in my opinion.
Now I got Windows 98SE running on it and it is still working. I also managed to get WiFi working on it (USRobotics)

What CD drive is installed in your unit?
Do you have a CD driver for DOS?

Last edited by Arctic on 2017-07-18, 16:44. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 7 of 7, by zetatron2000

Posted on 2017-05-18, 20:29

zetatron2000 Offline

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tayyare wrote:
NUSB is not working and not recognizing anything that you inserted into your current USB adapter probably means something is wrong with it, since I have generally +90% success with NUSB/Windows 98 with pen drives (Sandisk Cruiser, Kingston and many no-brand 2 to 8GB ones), card readers and USB HDDs.

The PC cards I have and had already tried.
I think the USB one should be good (it worked when I was used it on my old dell laptop 8years ago). I just don't have the drivers for Win98, but I think I should find such a CD with drivers that may be still in my parent's house. I'll check that next time I'll be there.

brassicGamer wrote:
I ended up installing a PCMCIA ethernet card I had lying around and it works great with my Win2k3 server after installing dsclient9x.msi.

Yesterday, I bought a 16bit 3COM 3CCFE574BT PC-Card. The seller claims it's brand new and provides Win98 drivers, so I keep my fingers crossed.

lolo799 wrote:

In the Bios, is the PC Card Controller Mode sets to Cardbus/16bit or PCIC compatible?
That could be a cause of problems with your Cardbus cards.

You should get a PCMCIA Compact Flash adapter and a CF card, that will solve all your problem for transferring files.

The mode in BIOS is set to Cardbus/16bit.
I was already thinking about buying CF and putting it in place of HDD, but I can as well buy two of them and use one as external drive.
I will see how other methods work.

Arctic wrote:
What CD drive is installed in your unit?
Do you have a CD driver for DOS?

It's this drive with old Toshiba logo. XM-1102B
Mine works fine, reads Audio CD, burned CD-R, can't boot neither from CD nor read CD-RW though.
As for CD driver, I didn't really look for one as Windows took care of It, but I've seen such driver for DOS on toshiba support page.
I'm also looking for that external Floopy drive. Even found one, but without cable.
Hopefully, with enough patience, I will find a working one.

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