VOGONS


First post, by mooxitani

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I recently picked up an NEC SX/16i off Craigslist. After installing a Gotek and booting to a dos 6.2.2 install disk, I found that it would only get to the dos prompt if I booted with the F5 option. After trying multiple different install disks, I found that the computer would not start any program larger than a few kilobytes, including both the dos and windows 3.1 setup programs. Does anyone have an idea what the issue could be?

Reply 1 of 11, by Horun

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No idea. Was it the complete computer with floppy drives and original ESDI HDD ? If so....Can you boot OK off the original floppy drive ?

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Reply 2 of 11, by mooxitani

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It has both the floppy drive and the HDD. The HDD is working, but I couldn’t get it to boot off of it. I then wiped it to find that I could not reinstall dos due to the errors mentioned above. I attempted to create a boot floppy with my performa, but it wouldn’t boot off of that either. This is my only DOS machine other than my 5150, which isn’t much help here.

Reply 3 of 11, by BitWrangler

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Hmmm, had an NEC Powermate 386 back in the day and they were a bit... strange... I ended up pulling it apart I think.. possibly I had HDD troubles too... even though I had larger drives that seemed to match drive types in the setup, they wouldn't work... maybe... I don't know for sure it was 2 decades ago and it was a $5 computer I didn't mess with that long... got an idea I had it apart to figure if I could disable onboard HDD and use up a precious slot on a multi i/o that spoke real hard drive-ese

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Reply 5 of 11, by mooxitani

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Deunan wrote on 2021-05-24, 10:36:

Could be faulty RAM - can you swap it for something else to make sure?

I’ve tried removing the two SIMMS from the board but that did not seem to make any change. I’m starting to think it’s a problem with the base memory soldered to the board.

Reply 6 of 11, by Jo22

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Hm. Maybe CheckIt can be helpful here? It can do all sorts of memory tests (base, xms, ems).

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Reply 7 of 11, by Deunan

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Soldered RAM is annoying, and not being able to run any programs even more so. Might not be any other way but to desolder and put sockets in (if there is enough space). Sometimes swapping the chips around causes the system to act differently, then you know it's the RAM. Though it might still be difficult to tell which chip exactly (but also more than one could've failed).

Reply 9 of 11, by mooxitani

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I've tried both checkit 2.01 and checkit 3.0 and they both refuse to open, and memtest86+ won't run on the gotek. I can't have both the gotek and the floppy drive connected because the machine only has one 4 pin power connector (I can't find an adapter).

Reply 10 of 11, by mooxitani

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mooxitani wrote on 2021-05-24, 14:37:

I've tried both checkit 2.01 and checkit 3.0 and they both refuse to open, and memtest86+ won't run on the gotek. I can't have both the gotek and the floppy drive connected because the machine only has one 4 pin power connector (I can't find an adapter).

Just tried the exe version of Memtest86+. Half the display filled with divide symbols and the computer locked up. This definitely is looking like a memory problem.

Reply 11 of 11, by mooxitani

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Update: I was able to correctly create both a dos and windows 3.1 install disk with my performa, and they both started up without any issues. This leads me to believe that the problem is with the gotek. I’ve set up my usb drive with USB Floppy Emulator, and the floppy images I used are the same that worked on a real drive. What I am doing wrong here?