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Windows NT3.51 / 4.0 Flashing cursor issue

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First post, by Rav

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Hi there, Yesterday I wanted to replace my windows Nt4 install for a NT3.51 Install, on my 486

I had 2 partition : Main 1500MB DOS partition with MSDOS 6.22 and a NTFS partition with NT4 inside an extended partition.
I deleted the NTFS partition and the extended partition then I deleted the NT related file in my dos partition, Then I did the fdisk / mbr and sys c: to get rid of the NT4 boot menu.

Then I moved NT3.51 i386 folder to the DOS drive with mTCP FTPSRV then I proceeded to try to install it.

It did the usual NT thing and proceeded to copy a bunch of files on the C drive then it rebooted.

I only get a flashing cursor when the PC boot.

So I then booted dos from a floppy, got rid of the NT files from C, did the fdisk/mbr, sys c: again so DOS can boot from the hdd again.

Tried another version of NT3.51 from internet archive. Same problem.

I begin to think that it could be something not compatible with NT3.51 so I just copied the NT4 i386 folder over to just reinstall NT4 instead.

Flashing cursor on boot again!

Then I backed up everything and used DBAN to zero out the hard drive and retry with NT3.51
I used fdisk to make a 600MB DOS partition, formated it with /s to let a chance to NT to detect the DOS so I have the menu, copied the i386 folder over, did the first install phase again...

Flashing cursor

I did try a few other way including scanning my DOS floppy disk with f-prod with 2009 defs in case I save something funny littering in my boot sectors, Tried with all the kitchen sink loaded, with only 386MAX, then with only Himem+smartdrv, Then with nothing from config/autoexec loaded, I still only got the flashing cursor on boot.

NT4, I installed it last month without issue so I don't know why it does not want to install anymore.

Hardware change since I installed NT4 successfully and now:

* Installed a Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum 16
* Installed a 3COM 3C509
* Installed 128KB of L2 (waiting for more chips, first batch have 40% defect and did not get enough to fill all the bank.
* Went from 52MB of ram to 16MB of ram (I have only 128K and I wanted it all cached). I do plan to come back to 52MB this week as I should receive about 50 more sram chips.

I was running the old version of NT4 without issue with all hardware installed.
Could it somehow only affect it during installation? The sound card have a SCSI interface but nothing plugged on it, I know that NT* installer detected it because it show it while the initial install phase.

Should I remove all the ISA cards and try again?

In all install tentatived, I ran winnt /b from the i386 folder copied on the DOS C drive. I do not have a CDROM unit, yet.

Reply 1 of 6, by Rav

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I just tried by removing all ISA card, re-adding the extra RAM and disabling the cache by setting FSB to 50Mhz

Same issue, flashing cursor at first reboot 🙁

Technically same setup as the NT4 install I did a month ago. That does not compute.

Reply 2 of 6, by chinny22

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Are you able to install Win95?
I'm not really sure where I am going with this but at least we would no if the problem is just with NT or all versions of windows

Reply 3 of 6, by Rav

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chinny22 wrote on 2023-03-28, 08:17:

Are you able to install Win95?
I'm not really sure where I am going with this but at least we would no if the problem is just with NT or all versions of windows

I going to test.

Now I just made another test, DBANed the hard drive, created 3 partition :
* primary C 128MB, formated, empty.
* logical D 1300MB, formated, copied i386 over
* logical E 600MB, unformated

ran the winnt /b/x, flashing cursor at boot.

NOW, i'm going to dump all partitions, will make a C with DOS and will copy the WIN95 install over, will install Win95 on D

Reply 4 of 6, by Rav

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chinny22 wrote on 2023-03-28, 08:17:

Are you able to install Win95?
I'm not really sure where I am going with this but at least we would no if the problem is just with NT or all versions of windows

Yes, Windows 95 do install without issue.

Reply 5 of 6, by chinny22

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Si it's a NT issue, I guess that narrows things down somewhat at least?
What if you use the 3 NT boot disks and the CD? I remember having trouble trying to install off the HDD way back when so still use this method to this day.
I also checked my NT 3.51 post which also serves as install notes. In that I couldn't use fdisk and had to use the built in partition tool?
NT3.51 Just turned 25 Today!

Again all shots in the dark as I do use fdisk when preparing disks for NT4 so I can't see anything wrong as such

Reply 6 of 6, by Rav

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chinny22 wrote on 2023-03-29, 12:25:
Si it's a NT issue, I guess that narrows things down somewhat at least? What if you use the 3 NT boot disks and the CD? I rememb […]
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Si it's a NT issue, I guess that narrows things down somewhat at least?
What if you use the 3 NT boot disks and the CD? I remember having trouble trying to install off the HDD way back when so still use this method to this day.
I also checked my NT 3.51 post which also serves as install notes. In that I couldn't use fdisk and had to use the built in partition tool?
NT3.51 Just turned 25 Today!

Again all shots in the dark as I do use fdisk when preparing disks for NT4 so I can't see anything wrong as such

Hdd partitioning should not be the issue as the bootloader have to be installed in a fat16 partition (I was using dos6.22 fdisk, not dos7 fdisk). Did it last month with NT4, worked fine, did it last weekend also with NT4, did not work.
The thing with fdisk from dos7, is that you have to say no to big partitions or making them small from what I understand (so they are fat16 and not fat32).
It is possible to bypass that issue by using Win2K NTLDR/ntdetect. I also did try that, even if I was on fat16 (in case it was something wrong with that bootloader version), same flashing cursor issue.

I do not own a CD drive yet. I did have that idea too but that would have to wait until I can find one.

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