DOS Cards, and DOS Cards in Quadras
Once upon a time, I wanted to put a DOS card in my Quadra 800. The only choice, or so it seemed, was a slow and expensive NuBus card. But I was sure that a DOS card for a Centris 610 had to work in a Quadra 800 since the Centris is a very close family. Then I discovered web pages on this very topic ... Here's what I used to get going. (I've since upgraded to a PowerMac, so I'm not using this info any more. I know my links might be out-of-date! Sorry. Keep searching. Good luck!)
References
A Highlight of My Installation of a Centris 610 DOS Card in Quadra 800 running System 7.5.3
Here's all the gotchas, tips, and comments from my installation many moons ago. I'm glad I took notes then because otherwise I wouldn't remember any of this now. (And don't worry, the Centris 610 DOS card should be indistinguishable from the PowerMac 6100 DOS card that is now cheap and readily available last time I checked.)
GOTCHA--> I needed PC Exchange from System 7.5.3, not DOS Compatibility 1.5 in order to get the drive container working. Oww ow ouch.
GOTCHA--> To install DOS from a DOS bootable floppy...
copy a:\ c:\
sys a:\ c:\
It acts as if boot blocks weren't set, but this is the DOS equivalent.
GOTCHA--> PC Clipboard "requires additional system services, please be sure the installation was proper" with Mac Easy Open control panel missing, but it doesn't hang on switch to Mac after watching DOS boot (previously any complete DOS boot caused my Mac to crash, how ironic). After a complete rebuild of the Quadra, hardware and software, I did not have this problem repeat.
GOTCHA--> Get a working "sys" DOS version 6.22 on hard drive container by a force delete of the old versions of IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS so I can copy over new versions. I used the ancient and venerable MacTools since these are invisible files, although many other programs would also work.
TIP-----> I formatted a secondary hard drive container later by mounting it (double-click when PC Exchange is working). The Mac saw that it was unformatted, and formatted it for me. This was much easier than the Windows format. (My Mac does basic Windows operations better and faster than a Windows box, at least for disk formatting.)
NOTE----> ... Then run MS-DOS install!
NOTE----> Remove upper NuBus slot cover (pop-out window) for cables to pass through.
NOTE----> Remove NuBus card line-r-up-er.
NOTE----> Run cable through window (open NuBus slot) while the computer case is open since it takes some force.
HANDY---> config.sys could use
DEVICE=C:\WIN\EMM386.exe noems x=cc00-cfff ram=d000-efff
HANDY---> config.sys could also use
dev=c:\~~cdrom.sys /d:NAME_HERE
and then autoexec.bat to match
c:\ods\mscdex /d:NAME_HERE /l:DRIVE_LETTER
where NAME_HERE doesn't matter, just has to be the same (since it's not an intuitive operating system).
HANDY---> help whatsnew
WARNING-> Don't run memmaker even though the installer suggest it!
ERROR---> cdr103: cdrom not
high sierra or iso9660 format reading drive D:
AbortRetryFail?
Mac must have Apple CD-ROM extension (even if not using
an Apple CD-ROM, as in my case, since I had an external NEC 3Xp MultiSpin
then), High Sierra, ISO 9660 in Extensions folder, active. After the
Apple CD-ROM extension, the only problem CDs I saw were hybrid CDs; I
could only use the Mac side of the CD. The little application
ISOnoHFS that I found at the
Info-Mac
archives takes care of mounting a hybrid CD
on the DOS side. I hate hybrid CDs! Infocom makes nice cross-platform
CDs (not an ISO/HFS hybrid), but most companies make hybrids that perform
poorly in cross-platform Macs. Ugh! What were they thinking?
ERROR---> When you switch to the DOS card and then back to the Mac with a PPP connection up, you lose all Domain Name Services. I guess the DOS card seizes COM1 which I set to the modem, and doesn't let go. Guess what? When I set COM1 to None in the PC Setup control panel, a different strange problem went away. It used to be that shortly after starting up my Mac, the DOS card would "cry" from the lack of attention which is to say that I would hear static from the speakers that went away the instant the DOS card started to boot. I assumed the static was from a stray capacitance being built up by the DOS card receiving power but not using it for the x86 CPU or the SoundBlaster16 card. The capacitance could then be bleeding off through the internal connection from the DOS card to "CD Audio" on the Mac motherboard. The rising and falling volume of the static could easily be explained by capacitance. At least, stray capacitance was my theory until the static went away when I changed COM1 from Modem to None. But who cares if my theory went out the window when I don't have to listen to that sound anymore! Actually, I think this theory died later, but you might give it a try if you're desperate!
Software
Enough hardware, a cheaper alternative is software emulation. Software is always slower! but it might be cheaper. When I was pricing the two, at least one version back on all of this software [so this is hardly definitive now], I had this opinion:
VirtualPC from Connectix might be better for my needs than RealPC from Insignia.
VirtualPC only needs any PowerPC, but Windows95 needs a 603 processor or newer.
RealPC needs any PowerPC.
SoftWindows is PowerPC only now, although older versions weren't.
BlueLabel from Lismore Software is the cheapest DOS emulator, $20 shareware. The reports are that it works well, or it's a beast, probably depending on your configuration.
Updates
According to a post to
comp.sys.mac.hardware, MacOS 8.5
will work with Apple DOS cards with the new PC Setup control panel and
Open Transport 1.6. I haven't tried it!
Back to Joni's 
Back to Joni's 
Created: March 8, 1999
Last Revised: March 10, 1999
This URL: http://www.bme.unc.edu/~hope/linx/mac/dosmac.html
Copyright 1999 by Joni Julian