DOS

[Bozo]

We have some very old computers running DOS and Windows 3.1.
Would anyone have any recommendations on new hardware to run these old operating systems?

Thanks

 

[Howell]

Can they be virtualized?

 

[Mercutio]

I think the biggest thing would be finding motherboards that have a real IDE controller that isn't routed through a JMicron USB bridge. One of my customers still uses some DOS systems for instrumentation. The last machine I set up for him was a Pentium 4.

 

[CougTek]

Would anyone have any recommendations on new hardware to run these old operating systems?

I'm not reading this correctly. The first time I read it, I thought you were implying that there's still new hardware supporting DOS.

I'll read a second time...Damn! It still looks like you ask us for NEW hardware for running DOS. I must not have taken enough coffee this morning.

Anyway, support for Windows 98 and Me has been phased out a few years ago, so DOS on new hardware...

 

[ddrueding]

Virtualize it. If you need a parallel or serial port, they can be passed through to the VM.

 

[Bozo]

Thanks for all your suggestions!

Virtualization might be an option if the virtual machine can see a proprietary card that is installed in the machine.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks for all your suggestions!

Virtualization might be an option if the virtual machine can see a proprietary card that is installed in the machine.

Ouch. That would depend on what the card is.

The alternative would be to find a specialist supplier. I have one that provides me with systems for the RTOS in some of our plants.

If you are willing to pay $1200 for a brand-new Intel 233Mhz system with 32MB of RAM, I can get you some.

 

[Chewy509]

I would have thought any modern system that has a full legacy compatible BIOS should work... (aka no i3/i5/i7 boards with UEFI). Remembering that MS-DOS strictly uses BIOS services to do stuff like access HDDs, keyboard, etc, it doesn't access hardware directly. (That also mean you can use USB keyboards as well as a good BIOS will emulate the AT controller for the USB device, and it'll work fine). About the only real requirement that I would consider is that the BIOS support IDE mode for the SATA connectors.

As for Win 3.1, that's a different ball game. As long as you stick to standard mode and not enhanced mode, it just uses the BIOS for all hardware related tasks. For video, as long as the video card support VESA 2.0 BIOS extension, you could use one of the many generic VESA drivers for WIn3.1, otherwise you're stuck with VGA res @ 16 colours. Keyboard and mouse will have to be PS/2 in this instance.

Is the control application 16bit or 32bit (and uses Win32s)?

Is the add-in card ISA, MCA or PCI? If it's ISA, then this is about the only board I could find without going embedded or custom: http://www.ibase.com.tw/2009/mb945.htmL

Also, you could try using FreeDOS instead of MS-DOS, as it's tested on new systems and has a bucket load of features not found in MS-DOS (like full USB Mass storage support, FAT32 support, etc), but unsure how Win3.1 will go running on top of FreeDOS instead of MS-DOS. Something you could ask in their forums. http://www.freedos.org/

PS. Remember, even the brand new i7-2600K starts in 16bit real mode for full legacy XT compatibility!

 

[blakerwry]

Virtualize it. If you need a parallel or serial port, they can be passed through to the VM.

That's not as easy as it might seem at first. While the serial port is emulated pretty well, the parallel ports are not. Most stop at printing support, if they even support it at all. This means that more exotic devices like scanners, dongles, etc usually don't work.

Beyond the basics to get the PC booted and connected to the internet, there really isn't any other hardware that's virtualized well. The one exception to this is USB. Hopefully VT-d with PCIe cards will help improve the situation.

The other problem you run into is that DOS wants to run at 100% CPU usage, so it doesn't share resources nearly as well as newer Operating Systems - You have to dedicate a core to each DOS instance.

I keep a stash of pII's/pIII's around for our DOS work. I actually built a new DOS box a few months ago using one of the pIII's. While I haven't ran DOS on anything newer than a P4, I do agree with the other members that new hardware can probably run DOS fine. Intel network cards still come with DOS drivers, as do Realtek's cards (last i checked). You'll probably have better luck sticking with intel chipsets over the others. They tend to maintain better legacy practices (USB, SATA/IDE, Video).

 

[Bozo]

Thanks for all the replies! :-D

I'm I have some P4 motherboards with D845 shipsets on them. They will probably work. Although they are 9 years old, they are still newer than the HP Vectras they are using now.

 

[MaxBurn]

Is it not an option to just leave it alone and replace fans and drives?

 

[Bozo]

Is it not an option to just leave it alone and replace fans and drives?

That was my suggestion from the beginning. But...I'm not the boss.

 

[Chewy509]

Thanks for all the replies! :-D

I'm I have some P4 motherboards with D845 shipsets on them. They will probably work. Although they are 9 years old, they are still newer than the HP Vectras they are using now.

The last DOS + Win 3.1 box I built was a IC2-Duo w/Q45 chipset (HP DC7900), and the one previous to that was a P4 on a Intel D845G motherboard. Both worked fine.

 

[Stereodude]

The last DOS + Win 3.1 box I built was a IC2-Duo w/Q45 chipset (HP DC7900)

That must have been a screamin' Windows 3.1 machine. :sunny:

 

[Howell]

That must have been a screamin' Windows 3.1 machine. :sunny:

That's one gaming machine with a severe need of a turbo button!

 

[CityK]

I don't know what all the fuss is about, as all current hardware will play old Das Boobs just fine
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc4r4oaGs7A
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU-Lbf4jGjc

 

[CityK]

Oh, right .. the operating system

(I have no idea why, but when I saw DOS, I immediately thought of Das Boobs!)

PS the above links are work safe.

 

[LunarMist]

I did not even know what DOS was back when the film came out or even when the parody was shown.

 

[Chewy509]

That must have been a screamin' Windows 3.1 machine. :sunny:

It was, anything we did on it was instant. I've never seen MS Word (v2 for Win) open so quick! We even installed the Trumpet TCP/IP stack and got it on the 'net! (We found a really old PCI 3Com card that had Win3.1 drivers available so used those, and a copy of some ancient version of Netscape on a demo CD that came with a magazine - which the magazine being dated Apr '96).

For a laugh we installed Quake1 on it as well, which worked quite well, except we had no sound.