Need help with Toshiba Satellite Pro 435CDs laptop

[dustman]

I could use a little help. I went to a garage sale today and this guy had an old (1996) Toshiba Satellite Pro 435CDs laptop computer spread out on a table with all the accessories (external CD drive, original manuals, mouse, phone cord, nice case and all paperwork). He couldn't find the system disks, so was letting it go as is. He was showing it to some guy and told him it worked perfect, but he had just bought a new laptop, and wanted to get rid of this one. He said he had wiped the hard drive on the Toshiba with Drive Washer to delete his personal information, and wanted $5 for everything. The guy wasn't interested and he left. The owner turned to me and said "want a free computer? I'm closing up in a few minutes, and its going in the trash otherwise." Needless to say, I took it thinking it would be fun to play with. I mean it looks brand new. It powered right up, did a memory check, and I can get into the bios with F1 and see everything there, but the drive is definately empty. I tried to load Windows 98, no dice. It says to put in the Windows 98 floppy boot disk. I happen to have several, so popped one in. It then asked for the Windows 98 boot disk #2. I had that too. Then it asks for the batch file. It had me stumped there, so I went online and it seems there are Windows 98 boot disks to download that enable the CD and have the batch file. I downloaded them onto a floppy, and popped them in. It still asks for the batch file. And that's the end. No where else to go. The external CD seems to be working just fine, but the computer doesn't recognize it. I have the Windows 98 disk in there, but without the CD driver, nothing happens. It seems to want the OEMCD001 device driver, which is supposedly on those downloads I mentioned, but for some reason it doesn't take. Any ideas?

Any advice appreciated,

Thanks,

Dustman

 

[voyagerfan99]

Try using my disk. I guarantee it'll work. Be sure to extract it to a blank floppy, or copy the files to a temp folder on your desktop and then transfer them to a floppy.

You can download it below:

http://www.mediafire.com/?1dxedfmwnxn

 

[dustman]

Hello, Voyagerfan99,

Thanks for the post. I downloaded your info onto a blank floppy, put it in the Toshiba, fired it up, and this is the message it gave me:

Non-system disk or disk error
Replace and strike any key when ready

So, I took out that floppy, inserted the Windows 98 startup disks, 1 then 2, and when it came up with the usual:

insert disk with batch file
press any key to continue

I put in your floppy again

Same message

I have several Windows 98 startup boot disks and all but one does the same thing, but 1 got a different message back, mentioning a driver OEMCD001. I looked for that driver online, but found it isn't actually a driver, but a reference to the CD drive in general.

When I go into bios it mentions booting from FDD or HDD, with FDD as the default. Nothing I do changes this setting.

Any ideas? And thanks again for the post.

Dustman

 

[dustman]

Update:

One Windows 98 startup boot disk gets me to an A prompt:

A:\>

When I type in MSCDEX, it comes up with this:

A:|>MSCDEX
usage: [/E/K/S/V] [/D:<driver>] ...[/L: letter] [/M:<//buffers>]

anything I do from that point results in:

Bad command or file name

Any ideas?

Dustman

 

[dustman]

I forgot, typing in SETUP at the A prompt also results in: Bad command or file name

 

[dustman]

I was just fiddling around with it and popped in a floppy with bootmagic partition manager and it partitioned the drive, but then asked for bootmagic dos configuration program (which I don't have) and net serches didn't really bring up anything that looked like it would work.

Now the Toshiba says:

No rom basic
use Toshiba's Basic

Yeah, right, like I'm ever going to find that.

 

[voyagerfan99]

I forgot, typing in SETUP at the A prompt also results in: Bad command or file name

Change the drive to D:\ and then type setup when the drive is d:\. It should then go to the Windows 98 setup from there.

 

[PHATSPEED7x]

Do you need windows??? Try installing xubuntu with a altertive boot cd.

 

[dustman]

Thanks again, Voyagerfan99, and hello Phatspeed7x!

I guess I've reached the end, now the computer does nothing but fire up, run a memory check, and give this message:

This BASIC was aborted because this machine has no ROM BASIC.
Use Toshiba's BASIC

That's it. No response anymore to any floppy (startup boot disks either, and I have downloaded several different versions besides trying my own). F1 no longer gets a response, it won't let you into bios. Pulling the plug does nothing. The battery works fine.

It just makes me sick, this thing looks brand new and it has all the accessories, the screen is perfect, not a scratch on the entire unit. Even the battery is still good. What in the heck is it going to take? Dynamite??

Thanks again, guys!

Dustman

 

[voyagerfan99]

Thanks again, Voyagerfan99, and hello Phatspeed7x!

I guess I've reached the end, now the computer does nothing but fire up, run a memory check, and give this message:

This BASIC was aborted because this machine has no ROM BASIC.
Use Toshiba's BASIC

That's it. No response anymore to any floppy (startup boot disks either, and I have downloaded several different versions besides trying my own). F1 no longer gets a response, it won't let you into bios. Pulling the plug does nothing. The battery works fine.

It just makes me sick, this thing looks brand new and it has all the accessories, the screen is perfect, not a scratch on the entire unit. Even the battery is still good. What in the heck is it going to take? Dynamite??

Thanks again, guys!

Dustman

Well, like Phat said, try a live linux CD.