I received my T5710 800MHz model yesterday and it stuck on "Verifying DMI Pool Data" if I plugged a USB boot disk, anyone have the same problem here?

Hi,

Didn't get that error, think we would need a bit more info, regarding the boot disk?

also did it arrive with an OS so was able to boot it's self? and has original 256mb SSD

regards

I used a 64g USB boot disk, maybe it's too large？
The original system boots to a white screen with detailed hw info “blancco hardware information report id”.

A bit big, windows 98 can't go over 32gb, I use 8gb for installation, or hinds boot cd with mini xp to copy the install files.

Digidreamer wrote on 2021-11-26, 20:39:

A bit big, windows 98 can't go over 32gb, I use 8gb for installation, or hinds boot cd with mini xp to copy the install files.

Tried another 8GB disk still not working. I have 2G bootable CF, and I ordered a CF to USB adapter and its on delivery, I'll test it later, maybe I can get a 2G USB disk to test too.
BTW, what's the max DOM capacity it can support? I bought a 32G DOM and wonder it may not recognize.

how are you making your bootable USB drives? think i used rufus, with DOS 7, been a while. lots of info on previous posts, found CD rom (Windows 98se) boot most effective as it starts up as a virtual a:\ drive, makes setting up the hdd easy, (No USB drivers) but still have to use USB finger drive to get the windows files across. but slow, USB 1.1.

other members are more eloquent at describing the process.

Don't know max size, i was using CF Cards, thing going over 8Gb would be a waste, ide to CF Adaptors a minefield, i have several that didn't work, the ones with a voltage regulator seem to work, but make sure you know which is pin 1.

need to pull it out to check the set up.

I used Rufus for modern system, some Linux distributions and win 8 as I recall. For t5710, I use the HP USB disk format tool with system files extracted from DOS 7.1 floppy disk ima, which is probably learned from this thread.
I do have a 2G Kingston USB disk which was brought about 20ys ago but I'm not at home🤣.
8GB is not enough for me, 16G is probably ok. I would install win98 and a collection of win98 games besides DOS games.
I have a HP t5700 with 16G DOM, win98, but the system was installed by the seller. He was using a 4G USB boot disk to install the system.

Can you test the flash drive on another computer to see if it'll boot elsewhere, some old flash drives couldn't be used as boot..

Quick step by step. But I have an advantage of having a CD ROM.

Step 1. Was to set up the flash drive with DOS 7. Copy over the windows install file folder.

Step 2. Use the flash drive to create the partition. You'll not be able the activate the system boot partition, as the flash drive acts as a hard drive and DOS will not allow you to setup a second active partition.

Step 3. Reboot on the flash drive, format the partition, create the folder to contain the installation files eg. MD win98, copy over all the files from the windows install file to the folder.

Step 4. Reboot to CD ROM windows disk, to command prompt without CD ROM Support (No USB Drivers present so CD Rom wont be available). This acts as a virtual floppy/RAM drive, change over to c:\ drive, change to the win98 folder and run setup, follow directions from there.

Without CD ROM, you need to find a way to boot to some sort of virtual floppy drive. Try checking https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-make-a-usb … drive-bootable/

Thanks for your help, BTW 32G DOM arrived today and it is recognized by the BIOS.

And I finally managed to make the 8G USB disk bootable, here's what I've done:
1. Use PCem to create a HDD raw disk image(.img) with CHS geometry, I used default, C/16/63, cylinder changes according to the image size, set image size as 8*1000*1000*1000/1024/1024=7629 mega bytes.
2.boot into PCem dos prompt, partition it with fdisk, and format the partition with bootable DOS files, using format x: /s, exit PCem.
3.Use a disk image writing tool to write the disk image into USB. I used UltraISO.
Now the USB disk is bootable to HP T5710.

Note:
1. The image size is not critically necessary the same size as USB disk, I tried a smaller image and it works.
Format the USB disk (right click option) in win98, XP, win 10, won't make it bootable(at least not to t5710). Reformat the bootable disk will probably make it unbootable again. Win98 and HP USB disk tool have an option to copy system files (equivalent to /s parameter of format command or to sys.com) but it's useless since the formatting is not working.
2. I think the CHS geometry is critical. Old BIOS need it somehow.
3. No need to mark the partition active(bootable) in PCem (step 2), I think the image writer will make USB partition active during writing process.

Not been near CHS since the 1990's,
Glad your up and running..

I'm not 100% sure about the CHS parameter and the UltraISO has additional disk format as USB-HDD, USB-ZIP option etc. I choose USB-HDD since it's not a zip disk.

crazii wrote on 2021-11-30, 19:41:

I'm not 100% sure about the CHS parameter and the UltraISO has additional disk format as USB-HDD, USB-ZIP option etc. I choose USB-HDD since it's not a zip disk.

I've been battling the last few days trying to get my T5710 to boot from a DOS formatted USB key, with ultimately no luck.

I have to ask - how exactly did you do it???

From what I can see, the BIOS CHS support when booting USB is totally borked, and won't boot anything MS-DOS related (FreeDOS works fine).
I've tried RMPrepUSB, Rufus, 86Box VHDs to USB, grub4dos, Ontrack, EZ-Drive and every version of DOS from 6.22 to Windows Me!

Also there are two versions of the T5710, a 800Mhz Crusoe CPU and a 1.2Ghz Efficeon - https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t5710/
I have the 800Mhz version with BIOS version 1.08 (1.07 also doesn't work).. what do you have?

I recently used this method for a 5720. Didn't work quite as seamless as in the video. In my case the USB drive was Drive c:\ and don't think I could access the 2nd partition.
BUT I was able to partition and format the drive and the usb's boot partition has enough space for the windows install files. Only thing I couldn't do was make the internal hard drive active (as the primary disk was now the USB) so had to use a USB floppy or a dos bootable USB (I forget which)
https://youtu.be/GioiRupslkU

th3bar0n wrote on 2023-04-13, 22:12:

I've been battling the last few days trying to get my T5710 to boot from a DOS formatted USB key, with ultimately no luck. […]
Show full quote

crazii wrote on 2021-11-30, 19:41:

I'm not 100% sure about the CHS parameter and the UltraISO has additional disk format as USB-HDD, USB-ZIP option etc. I choose USB-HDD since it's not a zip disk.

I've been battling the last few days trying to get my T5710 to boot from a DOS formatted USB key, with ultimately no luck.

I have to ask - how exactly did you do it???

From what I can see, the BIOS CHS support when booting USB is totally borked, and won't boot anything MS-DOS related (FreeDOS works fine).
I've tried RMPrepUSB, Rufus, 86Box VHDs to USB, grub4dos, Ontrack, EZ-Drive and every version of DOS from 6.22 to Windows Me!

Also there are two versions of the T5710, a 800Mhz Crusoe CPU and a 1.2Ghz Efficeon - https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t5710/
I have the 800Mhz version with BIOS version 1.08 (1.07 also doesn't work).. what do you have?

I wrote the steps above, using PCem, did it help? I'm ready to post more details if it's not clear enough.

crazii wrote on 2023-04-20, 01:33:

th3bar0n wrote on 2023-04-13, 22:12:

I've been battling the last few days trying to get my T5710 to boot from a DOS formatted USB key, with ultimately no luck. […]
Show full quote

crazii wrote on 2021-11-30, 19:41:

I'm not 100% sure about the CHS parameter and the UltraISO has additional disk format as USB-HDD, USB-ZIP option etc. I choose USB-HDD since it's not a zip disk.

I've been battling the last few days trying to get my T5710 to boot from a DOS formatted USB key, with ultimately no luck.

I have to ask - how exactly did you do it???

From what I can see, the BIOS CHS support when booting USB is totally borked, and won't boot anything MS-DOS related (FreeDOS works fine).
I've tried RMPrepUSB, Rufus, 86Box VHDs to USB, grub4dos, Ontrack, EZ-Drive and every version of DOS from 6.22 to Windows Me!

Also there are two versions of the T5710, a 800Mhz Crusoe CPU and a 1.2Ghz Efficeon - https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t5710/
I have the 800Mhz version with BIOS version 1.08 (1.07 also doesn't work).. what do you have?

I wrote the steps above, using PCem, did it help? I'm ready to post more details if it's not clear enough.

Ooops..

Very sorry! Somewhere down the rabbit hole I mixed up the T5520 and T5710 in my mind. It's the T5520 that absolutely won't boot any Microsoft MS-DOS.

Using the WD Table Check utility from here (http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/bioslim.htm) highlights the problem. This is how the BIOS reports my 2GB USB drive (DRV 1)....

The CHS values returned by the BIOS int 13h are way off what they should be.. zero Heads, and zero Sectors Per Track isn't going to get the job done, and five Cylinders also isn't great.

Interestingly the T5710 is not much better, hence the struggles, but it's clearly enough (with certain physical CHS value combinations) to keep IO.SYS happy enough to complete the boot process.

For completeness, this is what a normal USB Bios returns (DRV 1) for the same 2GB USB drive in my eee pc 1005HA!