Quickly press F5 when the Starting... message appears. If that works, check config.sys for stuff that causes the freeze.

DOS is pretty basic and boots off BIOS routines, so if your DOS install works on one PC compatible computer, it should do so on another.

If not, you've got hardware problems. Given that you get 'Starting MS-DOS' the HDD seems to be recognized and at least some data (the boot sector) is being read. Possibly your HDD is too large for the BIOS, but I'd be surprised if 362MB would be too large for anything.

Other suspects: that Elonex WS-425SX would have shipped with a 486SX-25, yet your photograph shows a 486DX2-66. Possibly some component (low-spec RAM or cache) doesn't like the 33MHz system speed that uses. Try underclocking to 50MHz (25MHz bus speed) and see what happens then...

Easiest is to use a CompactFlash card and mount it as a disk in VirtualBox on any PC and install away. Second easiest is to use an IDE-USB adapter and do the same thing.

dionb wrote:

DOS is pretty basic and boots off BIOS routines, so if your DOS install works on one PC compatible computer, it should do so on another.

If not, you've got hardware problems. Given that you get 'Starting MS-DOS' the HDD seems to be recognized and at least some data (the boot sector) is being read. Possibly your HDD is too large for the BIOS, but I'd be surprised if 362MB would be too large for anything.

Other suspects: that Elonex WS-425SX would have shipped with a 486SX-25, yet your photograph shows a 486DX2-66. Possibly some component (low-spec RAM or cache) doesn't like the 33MHz system speed that uses. Try underclocking to 50MHz (25MHz bus speed) and see what happens then...

I have talked to the guy who sold me this unit, It's WS-450 but with different front panel , soo i apologize, and the rest inside is from WS-450 as well , even the hdd was included there originally , I don't know where is the problem 😒

dosgamer wrote:

Easiest is to use a CompactFlash card and mount it as a disk in VirtualBox on any PC and install away. Second easiest is to use an IDE-USB adapter and do the same thing.

I love to keep system original, I could get my hands on adapter, but since i have second system that i use for file transfer, there is no extra need of using one 😀 I guess it's hardware fault then 😒

Check the power voltages.

Everything is correct, i have checked the PSU and even replaced it several times

Aglenoth wrote:

I guess it's hardware fault then 😒

Did you even try pressing F5?

Will it BOOT a floppy with no HDD connected?

The HDD may have a corrupt MBR.

It uses proprietary floppy drive that i dont have , the disk booted on second PC

Bearing in mind I'm going by a photograph....
That looks like a standard 34-p floppy header.
I suspect the only thing proprietary about the original FDD is the mounting and electrically it's standard.
A standard FDD should work for trouble-shooting, you just won't be able to install it in the case.
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