Installing Procomm Plus/DOS on a Pentium

[Paul O. BARTLETT]

I recently partitioned my hard disk and put DR-DOS 7.03 in a
bootable partition. The machine is an old Dell OptiPlex GXpro, which
is a 200MHz Pentium Pro. I have been installing some old and perfectly
good DOS software but have hit a snag installing Procomm Plus for DOS
version 2. I start the installation off the floppy, and after several
seconds the machine halts with a divide by zero error. I have to do a
cold boot to regain control. I have undoubtedly hit the "fast CPU bug"
in an initialization timing loop. Has anyone else successfully
installed (and then run) Procomm Plus/DOS v2 on a machine more "modern"
than, say, an 80386? If so, how do I get around the problem? (Failing
that, does anyone have any recommendations for comparable DOS
communications S/W that will run on a Pentium?) Thanks much.

[r***@this.newsgroup.com]

MSKermit comes to mind as an excellent alternate to Procomm Plus, and was
freeware. There's an 89 version posted at www.oregonfast.net/steen/msdos.htm


However, if your modem on the Pentium is one of the winmodems then you may be
out of luck with any of the old DOS programs for that purpose. They were so
much cheaper to install, that most commercial Pentiums used them in one form
or another. I'd get one of the freeware or shareware DOS programs to test
the modem first, such as Comport.

My newest version of Procomm's PCPlus is 1.1a, from mid 88. I ended up going
back to it after a couple of later versions came out, because of something
that behaved differently, but can't recall what. Pulled out my old copy off
a floppy and it had no problems running on my Pentium 450, so unless they made
changes in the program, I doubt the 200MHz Pentium Pro.

Not sure what installation there is. One self extracting archive just dumps
all the component files into a directory, or at least in the old 1.1a.

-------------------------

Post by Paul O. BARTLETT
I recently partitioned my hard disk and put DR-DOS 7.03 in a
bootable partition. The machine is an old Dell OptiPlex GXpro, which
is a 200MHz Pentium Pro. I have been installing some old and perfectly
good DOS software but have hit a snag installing Procomm Plus for DOS
version 2. I start the installation off the floppy, and after several
seconds the machine halts with a divide by zero error. I have to do a
cold boot to regain control. I have undoubtedly hit the "fast CPU bug"
in an initialization timing loop. Has anyone else successfully
installed (and then run) Procomm Plus/DOS v2 on a machine more "modern"
than, say, an 80386? If so, how do I get around the problem? (Failing
that, does anyone have any recommendations for comparable DOS
communications S/W that will run on a Pentium?) Thanks much.

[Paul O. BARTLETT]

[In reference to my problem installing Procomm Plus/DOS v2 on a Pentium]

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
MSKermit comes to mind as an excellent alternate to Procomm Plus, and was
freeware. There's an 89 version posted at www.oregonfast.net/steen/msdos.htm

Thanks for the reference.

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
However, if your modem on the Pentium is one of the winmodems then you may be
out of luck with any of the old DOS programs for that purpose. [...]

The modem is a real one, not one of those cheesy winmodems. I put
it in myself. It originally came out of an old DOS box running, you
guessed it, Procomm Plus/DOS v2.

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
My newest version of Procomm's PCPlus is 1.1a, from mid 88. I ended up going
back to it after a couple of later versions came out, because of something
that behaved differently, but can't recall what. Pulled out my old copy off
a floppy and it had no problems running on my Pentium 450, so unless they made
changes in the program, I doubt the 200MHz Pentium Pro.
Not sure what installation there is. One self extracting archive just dumps
all the component files into a directory, or at least in the old 1.1a.

On the v2 first diskette, there is a PCINSTAL program. Most of the
rest of the files on that diskette have a .HEX extension. The readme
specifically states that you must use the installation program. The
second diskette has various and assorted files. I run PCINSTAL, the
floppy whirs some, and I get the divide-by-zero error.

[t***@concentric.net]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 20:40:54 -0500, "Paul O. BARTLETT"

Post by Paul O. BARTLETT
[In reference to my problem installing Procomm Plus/DOS v2 on a Pentium]

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
MSKermit comes to mind as an excellent alternate to Procomm Plus, and was
freeware. There's an 89 version posted at www.oregonfast.net/steen/msdos.htm

Thanks for the reference.

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
However, if your modem on the Pentium is one of the winmodems then you may be
out of luck with any of the old DOS programs for that purpose. [...]

The modem is a real one, not one of those cheesy winmodems. I put
it in myself. It originally came out of an old DOS box running, you
guessed it, Procomm Plus/DOS v2.

You might try Telix for DOS, it was an excellent program for me 'way
back when and would be my first choice if/when I get another shell
account. (There's a Windows version too but I never used it.) It's
shareware so you can try it before you buy.

http://www.telix.com/delta/products/

[Richard Bonner]

Post by Paul O. BARTLETT
On the v2 first diskette, there is a PCINSTAL program. Most of the
rest of the files on that diskette have a .HEX extension. The readme
specifically states that you must use the installation program. The
second diskette has various and assorted files. I run PCINSTAL, the
floppy whirs some, and I get the divide-by-zero error.
--
Paul Bartlett

*** Ah-ha! First, SCANDISK the floppy. Then copy the contents of the
floppy to a temporary directory and try running the install from there.

Richard Bonner
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/

[Paul O. BARTLETT]

Post by Richard Bonner

On the v2 first diskette, there is a PCINSTAL program. [...]
I run PCINSTAL, the
floppy whirs some, and I get the divide-by-zero error.

*** Ah-ha! First, SCANDISK the floppy. Then copy the contents of the
floppy to a temporary directory and try running the install from there.

A legitimate point. I will CHKDSK it and try your method.
(SCANDISK seems to be a Windblows utility.)

(And in response to another message from Mr. Bonner, the moden is
not a winmodem, but a real modem.)

[p***@nospam.demon.co.uk]

Post by Paul O. BARTLETT

Post by Richard Bonner

On the v2 first diskette, there is a PCINSTAL program. [...]
I run PCINSTAL, the
floppy whirs some, and I get the divide-by-zero error.

*** Ah-ha! First, SCANDISK the floppy. Then copy the contents of the
floppy to a temporary directory and try running the install from there.

A legitimate point. I will CHKDSK it and try your method.
(SCANDISK seems to be a Windblows utility.)

DOS 6.22 here, and SCANDISK is large as life:

| C:>dir dos\scan*
|
| Directory of C:\DOS
|
| SCANDISK EXE 124,262 31/05/94 6:22
| SCANDISK INI 6,920 31/05/94 6:22

I have a vague recollection[1] that SCANDISK arrived with DOS6,
so perhaps you have an earlier version?

Pete

[1] when you get to my age you remember stuff 3 minutes or 30
years ago with crystal clarity, but everything in between is
very fuzzy :-(

[Richard Bonner]

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
MSKermit comes to mind as an excellent alternate to Procomm Plus, and
was freeware. There's an 89 version posted at
www.oregonfast.net/steen/msdos.htm

*** Later versions of ProComm are much better. I run 2.01 for DOS and
fine it excellent. In fact, I am using it right now to access the
newsgroup.

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
However, if your modem on the Pentium is one of the winmodems then you
may be out of luck with any of the old DOS programs for that purpose.
They were so much cheaper to install, that most commercial Pentiums used
them in one form or another.

*** Yes, and it was also Microsoft's way of keeping other operating
systems off people's computers.

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
I'd get one of the freeware or shareware DOS programs to test
the modem first, such as Comport.

*** That would be a good idea. I use Check Modem (CHKMODEM).

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
My newest version of Procomm's PCPlus is 1.1a, from mid 88. I ended up going
back to it after a couple of later versions came out, because of something
that behaved differently, but can't recall what.

*** I used an earlier version, but did not encounter anything I did not
like when upgrading to 2.01.

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
Pulled out my old copy off a floppy and it had no problems running on my
Pentium 450, so unless they made changes in the program, I doubt the
200MHz Pentium Pro.

*** ProComm runs on my 266 Mhz machine, so it may be another problem the
original poster is encountering. Certainly a WIN modem would be suspect.

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
Not sure what installation there is. One self extracting archive just dumps
all the component files into a directory, or at least in the old 1.1a.

*** That would be correct. I added a subdirecrtory for the Aspect
scripts, but left everyhting else in the one directory.

Richard Bonner
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/

[Richard Steiner]

Post by r***@this.newsgroup.com
MSKermit comes to mind as an excellent alternate to Procomm Plus, and
was freeware.

There are a number of excellent alternatives, many of them functional
supersets of Procomm Plus. A programs like Telemate, Terminate, and
Telix (which were all very popular in my BBS days in the early 90's)
come to my mind immediately.

Telemate will let you "multitask" to a certain extent during long file
downloads because it has a multithreaded kernel built into the program,
it has a nice "windowed" text interface, and it also has its own text
editor, viewer, and DOS prompt emulation built in which are functional
while the download is happening in the background.

Some links:

Telemate 4.21 is here:

ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/pub/simtelnet/msdos/commprog/tm421-1.zip
ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/pub/simtelnet/msdos/commprog/tm421-2.zip
ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/pub/simtelnet/msdos/commprog/tm421-3.zip
ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/pub/simtelnet/msdos/commprog/tm421-4.zip

Telix 3.51 is here:

ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/pub/simtelnet/msdos/telix/telix351.zip

Terminate 5.0 is here:

ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/pub/simtelnet/msdos/termnate/500ter.zip

I can provide detailed assistance with Telemate in particular, since
I've used it (and provided informal tech support for it) for a long
time under both DOS and OS/2.

[John Dulak]

Post by Paul O. BARTLETT
I recently partitioned my hard disk and put DR-DOS 7.03 in a
bootable partition. The machine is an old Dell OptiPlex GXpro, which
is a 200MHz Pentium Pro. I have been installing some old and perfectly
good DOS software but have hit a snag installing Procomm Plus for DOS
version 2. I start the installation off the floppy, and after several
seconds the machine halts with a divide by zero error. I have to do a
cold boot to regain control. I have undoubtedly hit the "fast CPU bug"
in an initialization timing loop. Has anyone else successfully
installed (and then run) Procomm Plus/DOS v2 on a machine more "modern"
than, say, an 80386? If so, how do I get around the problem? (Failing
that, does anyone have any recommendations for comparable DOS
communications S/W that will run on a Pentium?) Thanks much.
--
Paul Bartlett
bartlett at smart dot net
PGP key info in message headers

Paul:

I ran up against the identical problem a few years ago and managed to
get Procomm Plus DOS running using the "Mo'Slo" launch utility. If you
use Mo'slo in a batch file to launch the program it will slow down the
CPU (You can vary the amount) to run the program and then return it to
normal when you exit. The program is free for personal non commercial
use


You can find information on the problem and a utility called "Mo'Slo"
here:

http://www.hpaa.com/moslo/moslo.asp

You can download a "Free for personal use" version of the utility here:
http://www.hpaa.com/moslo/v132/moslo132.exe (Self extracting archive)
http://www.hpaa.com/moslo/v132/moslo132.zip
http://www.hpaa.com/moslo/moslotry.asp (Terms of use)
--
\\\\\//
"Don't take life so seriously... | |
...it's only a temporary condition." (.) (.)
========================================oOO==(_)==OOo==
________________________________
| John G. Dulak |
| Gnomeway Services |
/)| E-mail me from my home page at:|(\
/ )| telerama.com/~jdulak |( \
_( (|________________________________|) )_
((( \ \ > /_) ( \ < / / )))
(\\\ \ \_/ / \ \_/ / ///)
\ / \ /
\ _/ \_ /
/ / \ \

[Paul O. BARTLETT]

[concerning my problem installing Procomm Plus/DOS v2 on a Pentium]

Post by John Dulak

[trim]

I ran up against the identical problem a few years ago and managed to
get Procomm Plus DOS running using the "Mo'Slo" launch utility. If you
use Mo'slo in a batch file to launch the program it will slow down the
CPU (You can vary the amount) to run the program and then return it to
normal when you exit. The program is free for personal non commercial
use
[URLs trimmed]

Much appreciated! This is just the sort of information that makes
Usenet worthwhile. I was not aware of anything like Mo'slo. (I hopes
it implements something in software rather than mucking about with the
hardware. I haven't had a chance to read the site yet.)

[Richard Bonner]

Post by John Dulak
\\\\\//
"Don't take life so seriously... | |
...it's only a temporary condition." (.) (.)
========================================oOO==(_)==OOo==
________________________________
| John G. Dulak |
| Gnomeway Services |
/)| E-mail me from my home page at:|(\
/ )| telerama.com/~jdulak |( \
_( (|________________________________|) )_
((( \ \ > /_) ( \ < / / )))
(\\\ \ \_/ / \ \_/ / ///)
\ / \ /
\ _/ \_ /
/ / \ \

*** Oo, nice ASCII art, John!

Richard Bonner
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/

[Paul O. BARTLETT]

Post by John Dulak

Post by Paul O. BARTLETT
I recently partitioned my hard disk and put DR-DOS 7.03 in a
bootable partition. The machine is an old Dell OptiPlex GXpro, which
is a 200MHz Pentium Pro. [Concerning a divide-by-zero error when
trying to install Procomm Plus / DOS v2 on this machine.]

I ran up against the identical problem a few years ago and managed to
get Procomm Plus DOS running using the "Mo'Slo" launch utility. [...]

My problem does indeed seem to be the "fast CPU bug." I downloaded
the evaluation copy of Mo'Slo and tried it. When I used it to launch
the Procomm Plus / DOS installer specifying to run at half speed, the
installation went flawlessly. I don't have it configured yet to see if
Procomm will actually *run* on this machine at full speed (it may be a
few days before I get around to that), but just getting the program
installed is a major first step. Thanks again for the word on Mo'Slo.

[John Dulak]

Post by Paul O. BARTLETT
My problem does indeed seem to be the "fast CPU bug." I downloaded
the evaluation copy of Mo'Slo and tried it. When I used it to launch
the Procomm Plus / DOS installer specifying to run at half speed, the
installation went flawlessly. I don't have it configured yet to see if
Procomm will actually *run* on this machine at full speed (it may be a
few days before I get around to that), but just getting the program
installed is a major first step. Thanks again for the word on Mo'Slo.
--
Paul Bartlett
bartlett at smart dot net
PGP key info in message headers

Paul:

Your Welcome. IIRC running Procomm Plus / DOS was painless once I used
Mo'Slo to launch it. At 200 MHz you should not even have to slow it down
much :-).

John
--
\\\\\//
"Don't take life so seriously... | |
...it's only a temporary condition." (.) (.)
========================================oOO==(_)==OOo==
________________________________
| John G. Dulak |
| Gnomeway Services |
/)| E-mail me from my home page at:|(\
/ )| telerama.com/~jdulak |( \
_( (|________________________________|) )_
((( \ \ > /_) ( \ < / / )))
(\\\ \ \_/ / \ \_/ / ///)
\ / \ /
\ _/ \_ /
/ / \ \

[Davorin Vlahovic]

["Followup-To:" header set to alt.msdos.]

Post by Paul O. BARTLETT
I recently partitioned my hard disk and put DR-DOS 7.03 in a
bootable partition. The machine is an old Dell OptiPlex GXpro, which
is a 200MHz Pentium Pro. I have been installing some old and perfectly
good DOS software but have hit a snag installing Procomm Plus for DOS
version 2. I start the installation off the floppy, and after several
seconds the machine halts with a divide by zero error. I have to do a
cold boot to regain control. I have undoubtedly hit the "fast CPU bug"
in an initialization timing loop. Has anyone else successfully
installed (and then run) Procomm Plus/DOS v2 on a machine more "modern"
than, say, an 80386? If so, how do I get around the problem? (Failing
that, does anyone have any recommendations for comparable DOS
communications S/W that will run on a Pentium?) Thanks much.

Try using dosemu, or moslo.