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Getting windows 311 to start on slightly newer hardware...?

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First post, by bestemor

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- I have made a copy(image) of an older HDD with a working version of DOS622 and Win311 on it. Transferred to another small HDD, fat16 and everything. All software settings remained unchanged of course.

Been testing a bit on an Abit BH6 motherboard(was testing the board itself actually, and decided to let the HDD join in), with no soundcard, no floppy or CD attached - just the barenaked MB + a random 1997 PCI VGA card.

I get DOS running, no problem, even played a bit of the games on the disk.
But then tried starting Win311...

- I only get to see the logo screen(not even to the 'desktop'), and then it's total freeze 😮

BUT, when I put in the old VGA card from the original machine, it boots just fine, only various complaining about the missing Soundblaster...
What gives ?

Maaybe, if I was able to get a slightly more modern VGA driver for win311, it might help for any newer PCI cards?, but then again maybe not... ?

- ok, sorry for the rambling, but have no experience with Win311 misbehaviour - the parent machine worked just fine for 12+ years, and same for the Win311 installation.
And, I admit it MAY have something to do with the totally unprepared soul transplant(HDD contents moved), but as DOS works so well with no files or settings changed, I expected to get Win311 to at least boot, if nothing else...

PS:
oh, and I also remember recently getting an original 2MB Vram memory module for the older VGA card - making a total of 4MB, but when plugged in, Win311 started to show a fuzzy double/split screen or similar nonsense, so I just took it out again.
Very touchy OS that is... sigh 😵

Reply 1 of 8, by Dominus

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On the Dos prompt, change directory to the Windows installation folder and then type setup and hit enter. There change to the generic vga driver and hope that works... 😀
OR
see that recent topic in Millyways Patched SVGA driver for ANY new graphics card for use in Win3.1x. and please report back on how it went 😀

Very touchy OS that is... sigh

I do remeber having all sorts of problems back in the days with Win3x that made me reinstall the beast a couple of times.
But since I am using it under Dosbox it behaves fine and is much easier to recover when you can more easily edit some ini files, "boot" dosbox and have instant overlook of how it went 😀

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 2 of 8, by bestemor

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Thanks for reply!

Tried the 'setup' command in c\windows, but.... it then only tells me that:
"To install MS-DOS, insert Setup Disk 1...etc etc" "or press Enter to go to prompt"...

Well, that didn't work then...

So I guess I'll have to take a peek at that linked topic now.

Reply 3 of 8, by Dominus

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you need to be able to start the windows setup program. try c:\windows\setup.exe. If that doesn't work you are screwed anyway. Or try the setup within working windows, set it to vga then shut down, change video card and start windows...

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 5 of 8, by bestemor

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hmm, just checked the windows directories... no file at all named setup.exe !
No wonder it reverts to the dos file....
There is a setup.inf in the /system directory, though.

As for virtual environments, weell...
At least for now I'm gonna go for the actual hardware solution.
(and don't think VM would work in my DOS environment, heh)

- Only reason I'm doing this at all, is to see if I can easily transfer my early 1995 setup to a somewhat more modern machine (1997-1998 stuff), due to the sudden failure of my IDE controller on the original setup.
(have ordered some replacement cards, not sure if they'll work - too new or lacking boot ability, but we'll see....)

As for generic driver, maybe this is the thing ?
http://michaelv.org/computers/guides/win31.php

Reply 6 of 8, by Dominus

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Isn't the link I gave the generic driver?

And your installation seems botched

Reply 7 of 8, by bestemor

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As for the link, was just replying to DosFreak's reminiscing... 😊
Haven't gotten around to testing your's yet, or any other driver for that matter. But later this weekend, hopefully...

The botched installation, hmm... 😕
Fact is, I didn't install it myself back then, the seller did all those things, with me as the clueless customer...
Didn't get any installation diskettes either, wondered why, but he said it wasn't needed... 😵

But that aside, the setup has worked perfectly up to this moment (in the original machine, that is). So I've never re-installed any OS related stuff on this one, ever.

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