My tape doesn't work on win98'sdos.

[Tien]

Hello all.
I have a tape from Qualstar Corporation. It's worked well since 1995 on DOS 6.2. It interfaces with computer with a PCI card and there's a line DEVICE=C:\MSC\MSCTAPE.SYS I15 B380 in the config.sys file. Now I want the tape works on win98's DOS but it doesn't. The system hangs after that line in config file be loaded with the following lines on screen:

Using interrupt 15, I/O address 380
Located TAPE-816 controller
found 512 kbytes of 16 bit memory, testing - passed

About 5 minutes later this line:

The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS

I have no way in Qualstar site. Doesn't my tape work on win98's dos? help me. Thank you.

[Randy_tx]

I think the reason you are having problems using a "dos window" in Win98 is that you will need to place the same or similar config.sys & autoexec.bat from the old dos 6.2 setup into a autoexec.dos & config.dos file in the root directory of your win 98 machine. The other way to do it MIGHT be to make adjustments to the way your dos prompt in win 98 deals with dos progs....hopefully someone like Pete can tell ya what changes you can make in properties section of dos prompt.

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[Randy_tx]

It looks like if you go to "Properties" by right clicking the Dos icon in win98 you can get to the Advanced Section and add items like himem.sys etc to the config and autoexec .

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Open letter to Bill Gates:"I just want 1% of your net worth...I'm not greedy"

[Paleo Pete]

Using interrupt 15, I/O address 380
Located TAPE-816 controller
found 512 kbytes of 16 bit memory, testing - passed

IRQ 15 is the secondary IDE controller. That makes me think it's conflicting with the onboard IDE controller, especially if you have a hard drive or CD ROM there. Try moving it to an open IRQ. The I15 is the IRQ address in the config.sys line, and B380 is the I/O address. Change it there, not in Device Manager, we're dealing with DOS here...The I/O address might need to be changed too, not sure about that one. Try the IRQ first, then look into the I/O if necessary.

If this uses a floppy type ribbon cable, check with a computer shop about a special ribbon cable designed to add a tape drive to a floppy cable, usually only necessary if you have 2 floppy drives. I have one on this machine, 2 floppy drives and a Colorado tape, works perfect with no commands in autoexec.bat or config.sys. I don't use it in DOS though, but Microsoft Backup sees and uses it with no trouble.If you only have one floppy you might be able to attach it to the existing floppy cable and rem out the line in config.sys, then try it, might take some tinkering to get it to work in DOS...

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[Tien]

Thank you Randy and Pete. Your post's very interesting but i'd like to say again that my Qualstar tape interfaces (links) with my computer througt PCI card. It's worked perfect on dos 6.2 and i'd like it works on win98 dos (upgrade system). My actual problem may be drivers for the tape. My old driver may not work on win98 and if that's true where and how i can get new driver. i've search in Qualstar site and there's no help. any more help thank you.

[Paleo Pete]

Try Windrivers (http://www.windrivers.com) and WinFiles (http://www.winfiles.com)

Either might have a link to newer drivers, we can't look one up without the model number of the drive.

------------------
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Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

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[Tien]

Thank you supper man Pete my system's just work well by your opinion that

>IRQ 15 is the secondary IDE controller. That makes me think it's >conflicting with the onboard IDE controller, especially if you have a >hard drive or CD ROM there. Try moving it to an open IRQ. The I15 is the >IRQ address in the config.sys line, and B380 is the I/O address. Change >it there, not in Device Manager, we're dealing with DOS here...

my system win98 and the Qualstar tape's worked well when i'd removed my second ide hard disk (i have 2 hdd in my computer). Now i have 2 choices. The fisrt is working with 2 HDD without the tape and the second is 1 HDD with the tape. i'll have to choose the second for my work. i wonder if there's the third choice for me that my system'll work well with all 3 those objets? what's opinion? thank you.

[Paleo Pete]

That would depend on the rest of the system. With hard drives you can usually put both on one IDE controller, instead of each on a separate one. Hook the second hard drive to the same IDE ribbon cable as the primary, C drive, and set the jumpers on them so the cable sees them as Master and Slave. Then set BIOS accordingly.

That should put both hard drives on the same IDE channel, and therefore the same IRQ and DMA addresses. If you also have a CD ROM that might complicate things, ubt unless I misunderstand the situation, putting both hard drives on the same IDE channel should work.

------------------
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Tien]

ok. That's it. my 3 objects've worked together on win98 system. thank you again Pete.