Comic Genesis Forums

Here's what I'm wanting to do.

I have some old PCs, I have some soundfont soundcards, I have some old CD ROMS.

What I want to do is build some synth modules out of these beasties.

Can I build a Windows 98se box that will boot from CD without a hard drive?

I've got the drivers for the soundcards and I've got the soundfonts I want to use and I've got the software that runs the soundcard as a synth when it boots up.

The idea is, to take these stripped down PCs without a monitor, keyboard, and mouse (I can set the BIOS to ignore those errors on boot) and have them boot the synth software, sound card drivers, and soundfonts from the CD-ROM so I can run the system without a hard drive.

Can I build a bootable 93se CD with just the bare essentials needed to get the machine going because all these machines are going to do is work like synth modules.

The reason I want to be able to run without a hard drive is to avoid all the problems Windows has when you power down without following the proper shutdown proceedure. Also, if I build the synths this way then I can boot with different CDs to use different soundfonts.

I need these machines to be small and unobstrusive hence the need for a system that will run without monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Basically the end goal is to turn all this old junk I've got into hardware synths.

Anyone got any helpful suggestions for making this work?

i'm not sure you can do that in 98se. I seem to remember it freaking out if there was no keyboard or monitor present, even if the BIOS was ignorant. Same with the lack of harddrive.

Can you run a different OS? Something like PICOBSD would probably do better, since the entire OS can run from a floppy

Yeah I was actually thinking running a different OS might be the way to go, but then I'd have to find the software to run the soundcards for that OS.

Good ol' DOS might end up being my best bet.

I think in grand theory it is possible, but Windows would pop up so many errors it's not even funny.

DOS would do it though, but at that point I would reccomend just using the floppy drive.

Also in grand theory... they could be network bootable boxes that use a main PC with a hard drive as their scratch folder... Hmm...

there is a ton of sound software for the various unixieses, so you should be ok there. If it works in DOS, then that really may be the way to go, but you could get so much more for so much less with a small kernel unix

Well I can do a hardware hack to get past the keyboard problem well enough and I know Windows works sans mouse with no problems. I can get the synth software to pop up as soon as windows loads so that's not a problem. I'll probably have to use a hard drive in the systems, oh well.

What I need is a way around windows annoying habbit of running scandisk everytime you turn off the power without the proper shutdown.

I might be able to build a dongle to plug into the videocard to trick it into thinking it has a monitor hooked up to it.

weeeeel ghastly, i recomend a linix distro for that. 98 se frequently goes fucking apeshit without a keyboard. never had it bitch about the monitor tho. If you got the files in dos, qll it is a quick,m dirty operating system, it;ll do the job probably, but be functionaly ugly.

I've been searching the net over and can't seem to locate the software to do what I want in either Linux or Dos. Looks like I'll be a hackin' the hardware to trick Windows 98 into working without a keyboard. I'll probably have to go with harddrives instead of CD-Roms too. Not that I have a shortage of wee hard drives (got several hard drives under 2 gigs kicking about that'll do just fine).

I really wish I could find the freaking software to do it in DOS. I've got an old 486 that's super tiny that would be great to use for this purpose. Of course it's a freaking Compaq so chances are the hardware is fucked to hell and back anyways.

man, Ghastly.. you work too hard to be a good Unix admin ;P

Anyway, I just raped some hardware I had in my closet, and tried, and no, aitn't no way in hell to boot 98se without keys. However, the key faker dongle is pretty easy.

There may still be a chance of making it work with Windows 98se. IIRC, the CD burning programs I've used (Easy CD Creator and RecordNow) have options to make bootable CDs, though probably just in command-prompt mode by default, but it should be possible to copy a minimal Windows configuration to a disc. I also remember that Norton Systemworks used to have a utility to boot Win98 GUI off of a Zip disk, so perhaps there's some info out there for that which would carry over to CDs.

Of course, the computer also has to support booting from CD-ROMs, which isn't always the case with older computers.

If your burn software claims the ability to make bootable CDs, then I'd try setting up a minimal Windows config. and then burning a bootable CD also with the C:\Windows and all of the root files (especially the hidden ones)... Unfortunately, you may end up with several coasters during experimentation. If I had a system to play with I'd try a few myself.

I never knew of a system to complain about a missing monitor ("If you can't read this then press F1 to continue" though I've seen that message for missing keyboards), but the fake-out plugs sound like they're up your alley. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Oh I have so got to do this with one of my old PCs.

I'll see if I can find the link, but I saw someone who went one better. Instead of vegtable oil, he used mineral oil, and pumped it though an old wall A/C unit's heat exchanger. The onwer of the computer was able to cool the thing down to -198F and you talk about some OVERCLOCKING.

Having the hard drives will make the problem a LOT easier to fix!

Scandisk: Run MSCONFIG. There is an option to disable scandisk when booting.

Keyboard: You may want to check in HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Keyboard

Granted, I haven't seen anything on this on-line except that people seem to have their Win98 machines boot without keyboards.