How-To Geek

So I've come across an old 1994 Packard Bell Legend 11cd, and I'd like to get it set up to (at least) run MAME. I've run into some troubles. This is my first attempt at anything like this, so I need some help. Here's what I've done so far.

Booted up, and it can't seem to find an operating system. Using a DOS boot floppy I discovered that I can't access either the hard drive or the CD-rom drive.

My question is, how should I go about troubleshooting this hard drive problem? I don't know if its a connection problem, or if the drive has failed.

As far as I can tell, the cables seem alright.

When I go into setup, it warns me that the CMOS checksum is invalid, and that it's loading the default values, I've also manually loaded the default values from within setup.

The cd drive tray seems to work right, but I can't find the drive through the DOS disk.

I'm trying to figure out how big the drive is right now, it's entombed in case right now, all i can tell at this point it that it's a seagate and it makes some noise (no noise I'm worried about though)

Unfortunately I don't have an old harddrive

Dasher,

Unless you have the (CONFIG.SYS) and (AUTOEXEC.BAT) files setup properly, you won't be able to read the CD in the Dos Boot Disk. Also on the Boot Disk, you need the (OAKCDROM.SYS) and (MSCDEX.EXE) files to reference to in the above Boot Files.

Abbreviated Boot File (there will be more entries)
==================================
[CONFIG.SYS] File
DEVICE=A:\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=A:\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD000
==================================
[AUTOEXEC.BAT] File
ECHO ON
PATH=A:\
A:\ MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 /L:G
REM @LH A:SMARTDRV.EXE
==================================
OAKCDROM.SYS file should be on floppy A:
MSCDEX.EXE file should be on floppy A:
==================================
Your Cdrom will be G:

If your Boot floppy has EDIT.COM on it, type in EDIT to edit above files.

Regards,
Rick P.

Dasher
Be sure MSCDEX and OAKCDROM files are on Boot Disk.
Type DIR /P and hit enter key to look around.
Be sure you have some kind of readable CD in CDrom.
OAKCDROM.SYS is a generic driver and might not work on the model of CDrom you have.
See if there is another CDrom driver on your Boot Disk and substitute in CONFIG.SYS file.
Try another cable.
Disk drive Jumper should be Master and CD Jumper should be Slave. NO CABLE SELECT to force Devices.
The (4) things both devices have in common are the PS, Cable, Bios and Board Controller.
Discounting Bios, that leaves (3) items to trouble shoot.
The old power supplies could burn out one section and still have power on other connectors HOWEVER you have power on CD tray.
Are you still getting Bios checksum error on boot ??
Post Back.
Regards,
Rick P.

Dasher,

I would say you are Certainly at the Replace or Repair Point (LOL) :)

Best of Luck.

Regards,
Rick P.