New Motherboard for a DOS 6.22 Install

[RyboFlavin]

I have been required to build a new PC that is going to run some Alarm Monitoring software on DOS 6.22. There is no Windows versions and DOS 6.22 is the only option. This can't be a "used" machine...must be new.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a new motherboard that will still work well with DOS 6.22?

 

[Sukhoi]

It won't run in a DOS box in Windows?

 

[cr4pz0r]

Though any new motherboard will work well with DOS 6.22, you'll have to try finding a used hard drive that's smaller than 8.4GB in capacity - DOS 6.22 doesn't work at all with larger hard drives. And even if you do find a <8.4GB hard drive, you'll run into a 2.1GB limit per drive volume (due to the limitations of the FAT16 file system that DOS 6.22 uses). Which means that an 8.4GB hard drive will require at least four partitions (C:, D:, E: and F. Hope this helps.

 

[AndyHui]

You can pretty much "extract" DOS 7.10 from Win98 if you really need to.

Simply create a boot floppy under Windows 98, then sys c: a blank partitioned and formatted hard drive. Any other DOS commands that you need are available in the Windows\Command folder, so all the functionality you need is there, along with much better support for hardware less ancient. The biggest bonus is FAT32 support.

 

[sao123]

www.mwave.com

Here Is the most cost effective sloution to your problem.
P3 Celeron 900Mhz - $70 or P3 866Mhz Slot 1 SECC2 - $120
TYAN S1854 TRINITY 400 VIA 694X CHIPSET ULTRA DMA66 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xAGP(4X)/6xPCI/1xISA/3xDIMM - $80
128 MB Kingston SDRAM CLS3 DIMM - $23

 

[Jeff H]

RyboFlavin, you should be able to put a very inexpensive box together to run that appl. I recently built a box for my daughters to use for web surfing and Office97. I picked up a Soyo 6BA+III 400BX Slot1 board (new) for $40. You could combine that w/ a Slot1 PII cpu; check out PriceWatch for options. You shouldn't have to spend more than $40 for a Slot1 PII, and I wouldn't think you'd need much horsepower. PC100 SDRAM can be had for little $$; again check out PriceWatch. For less than $100 you'd have a board, memory, and processor.

For a hard drive do a post on the Anandtech For Sale forum and see what the members can come up with. You should be able to find a smaller capacity drive cheap. It likely won't be new, but that shouldn't be an issue. Otherwise a new 20GB can be had for very little $$.

 

[cr4pz0r]

Originally posted by: Jeff H
RyboFlavin, you should be able to put a very inexpensive box together to run that appl...

For a hard drive do a post on the Anandtech For Sale forum and see what the members can come up with. You should be able to find a smaller capacity drive cheap. It likely won't be new, but that shouldn't be an issue. Otherwise a new 20GB can be had for very little $$.

Jeff H, if RyboFlavin will be running MS-DOS 6.22 as that system's OS, don't suggest a hard drive any larger than 8.4GB; that OS cannot recognize such larger hard drives. You were suggesting a 20GB hard drive - but a hard drive of even that small of a capacity will require the full version of Windows 95 or later or Windows NT4/SP3 or later just to even use it (Windows 95 Upgrade has the very same capacity limitation as older MS-DOS versions and Windows 3.x). And 40GB hard drives will require Windows 98 or later (Windows 95 has a 32GB capacity limit), or Windows NT4/SP4 or later just to use them. Altenative OSes for clone PCs may also support large hard drives.

 

[Jeff H]

cr4pz0r, you're right. I guess I was building on what Andy said re using the DOS built in to Win98, so one could then use FAT32. But, if RyboFlavin is going to stick w/ DOS 6.22 then the 8.4G thing is an issue w/ whcih he'll have to deal.

 

[MysticLlama]

Okay, here's a sick idea. Hate to suggest it even...

I have a Seagate Barracuda ATA III sitting in front of me that has a particular jumper setting on it.

It reads "Limit drive capacity to 2.1Gbytes (4,092 cylinders)"

Castrates a 20GB drive to a 2.1..... but at least it's new.