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running floppies in 5150

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EverythingIBM:
Okay, I must be bad with vintage technology. I got a few DOS games on 5" floppies and want to play them on my 5150. So I put one in, hit F3 for LOAD, and then type "A" for drive A (I'm guessing that's how it works). Then it clicks, waits for a minute, clicks again and I get a message that the "device timed out".

WHAT'S WRONG?!?!?! I need some IBMage.

kishy:
some old games of that particular vintage will require you to boot with them inserted. they are entirely independent of your OS of choice.

best i can offer right there.

another possibility is your drive is dirty or faulty.

Edit: in retrospect, I see you're obviously letting it boot into BASIC in ROM.

If the game is the sort that the computer can boot from, boot the system with it in the drive. If it gives you no luck that way then you need to boot to an OS first - BASIC is not an OS. You'd need DOS something or other on another floppy, boot to it, then access the game in second drive (or swap for first if only equipped with one).

ch_123:
Also, are the floppy disks the correct density for the drive?

Rajagra:
What are you booting into? If at the C:> prompt, type
A:
at the A:> prompt type the name of the game. Type
dir
to see what's there.
You kind of lost me at 'press F3 to load.' Is that an option presented when that model doesn't find a boot device, or is it some DOS shell?
(Sorry if I'm stating the obvious.)

kishy:

--- Quote from: ch_123;180904 ---Also, are the floppy disks the correct density for the drive?
--- End quote ---


VERY valid point.


--- Quote from: Rajagra;180914 ---What are you booting into? If at the C:> prompt, type
A:
at the A:> prompt type the name of the game. Type
dir
to see what's there.
You kind of lost me at 'press F3 to load.' Is that an option presented when that model doesn't find a boot device, or is it some DOS shell?
(Sorry if I'm stating the obvious.)
--- End quote ---


5150 didn't include a hard drive by spec, so he'd need to boot a DOS floppy.

The fact that he is presented with the ability to press F3 to "load" means it found no suitable boot device and went to BASIC in ROM. IBM computers, I believe up to the Aptiva series, have Microsoft BASIC present in their ROM and will boot to it if they find no suitable OS on any other bootable media.

Accordingly, in order to have ANY DOS prompt, he's going to need to boot into DOS first. It is my belief that he doesn't have such a disk or he'd already have done it.

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