DOS ain't dead - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800

Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 (Users)

posted by rr , Berlin, Germany, 24.04.2020, 20:41

Hi!

These days I'm trying to resurrect an HP OmniBook 800 by installing MS-DOS 6.22. The original 2 GB HDD was too noisy to my ears, so I connected an 8 GB CF card (Transcend 133x) via a CF-to-IDE adapter instead.

Problem: If the CF card is connected, I can't boot from an MS-DOS floppy (tried 6.20 and 6.22) to run setup. After printing "Starting MS-DOS..." the laptop hangs, but the floppy keeps spinning forever.

Partial success #1: If I remove the CF card, I can boot from floppy again.

Partial success #2: When I prepared the CF card on Windows XP using Rufus 2.18 by checking the "FreeDOS" option, I was able to boot the OB800 from floppy and HDD. But that's FAT32 and FreeDOS. -- At least it proves, that there is no general hardware problem.

Partial success #3: Wiping the MBR will let me boot MS-DOS setup from floppy for the first time. After running FDISK to create a new partition, I have to reboot. MS-DOS setup floppy hangs again with "Starting MS-DOS...".

Guess: There might be something wrong about the drive geometry on the CF card, which makes MS-DOS initial drive detection go crazy.

Do you have any idea, how to make the OB800 work with this CF card and MS-DOS 6.22?

Cheers,
Robert

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Complete thread:

Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - rr, 24.04.2020, 20:41 (Users)
- Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - RayeR, 01.05.2020, 18:04
  - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - rr, 02.05.2020, 22:58
    - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - Laaca, 03.05.2020, 10:21
      - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - rr, 03.05.2020, 13:10
  - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - DosWorld, 28.05.2020, 02:12
    - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - rr, 20.06.2020, 21:45
      - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - glennmcc, 21.06.2020, 05:29
        Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - rr, 25.06.2020, 19:17
      - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - DosWorld, 26.06.2020, 18:16
- Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - rr, 04.05.2020, 22:35
  - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - rr, 06.05.2020, 11:42
    - Problems with new CF card in HP OmniBook 800 - rr, 20.06.2020, 21:46