Re: PCT Help?

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <gv84389@pro-palmtree.cts.com>, rder@pro-palmtree.cts.com
(Richard Der) wrote:

>From an email conversation I had with Mr. Sutton, here is his
>situation. He does not have one of those special drives you mentioned
>connected to the PCT to read PC disks, but he does have a startup
>disk image. This disk image is a small 500K file that contains
>a bootable MS-DOS 5 startup with some utilities including a
>special transfer program that is supposed to move files between
>ProDOS and MS-DOS.

Ah, in that case there are likely to be two problems:

- Insufficient memory on the PC Transporter
- Configuration of the PC Transporter Control Panel options, so that it
knows it has no floppies, and knows where to find the hard drive.

>This disk image is a file that sits on a
>startup disk that contains the PCT software. When this disk is
>booted on another system, the disk image on it is started and is
>mapped as the C:\ drive.

It seems that the second problem is covered, so that leaves the first.

>That was before he posted that he had only 256K on his PCT.
>I had thought that the PCT used the IIGS system RAM. Apparently,
>it uses its own memory. I don't think 256K is enough to boot
>MS-DOS 5.

More to the point, 128K is not enough to boot MS-DOS 5.  The PC
Transporter uses 128K of its own RAM for holding the BIOS image, screen
memory and for temporary storage.  This leaves 128K for use by the PC,
which might be enough to boot old versions of MS-DOS (up to 2.x, possibly
even 3.x), but I doubt it is sufficient for DOS 5.

>If this is the problem, what type of memory chips does he need to plug
>in to make the card useful?

Zigzag-In-Line 64Kx4 chips, in sets of eight.  It would require 16 chips
to fully populate the card.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail Mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand