DOS Compatibility

[Don Taylor]

I'm surprised that Dell declined to answer your question. I would not expect
them to give you much help in getting third-party software to run, but I
expect that Dell support would cheerfully answer any question that is
covered in their support scripts.

I purchased a new Dell for my mother. I paid as much for software from them
as I did for hardware and paid as much for a three year support contract as
I did for either hardware or software. After it arrived we found that Dell
support consists of diagnosing whether you have broken hardware, and if so
asking if it would be ok for them to just mail you the hardware. Only if
you insist will they have the local service person come install it. There
is ZERO support for software, beyond initially asking whether it runs or
telling you where the instructions are for you to try to reinstall the OS
disks provided, ZERO. The hundreds I paid for "support" didn't buy me, or
her, anything.

At least, that seemed to be true the last
time I called them with a question on a machine at work. They couldn't
answer the question, but they tried. I admit that this was through the
business channel; perhaps Dell is less accommodating to home users.

Dell outsourced all the support to India. Businesses called up Dell and
told them to put that where the sun don't shine. Dell then brought the
business support back on shore. All home/personal support remains on
other continents, with long scripted questions that they go through, line
by line, and if you aren't on the script, who knows.

Disclaimer: I have a close relative who works for Dell. However, I own no
Dell hardware, or company stock. This is being written on a homebuilt
machine with an AMD Athlon64 CPU, which makes it about as far from being a
Dell as a Windows machine can get.

 

[Don Taylor]

But, if the price of the Dell was $300 more to account for the type of
support you wanted ie support for non-dell third party software, they'd
miss the sale as you would not have paid $300 more for the unit.

I paid MORE than $300 for "support", just about 1/3 of what I paid Dell,
thinking they were going to answer the questions from my mother so I
wouldn't have to do that. Only after I found out that "support" consists
of "we will mail you a new $5 mouse if we can diagnose over the phone
that it is really broken" did I much more seriously think that next time
I wouldn't buy from them with or without the "support."

If they said in blinking text on their television commercials what their
"support" really wasn't, they would almost certainly have far more people
not pay them for this. And that would be the honest thing to do.

 

[Guest]

--
Horatio T Zilch

Read the manual for the program. You have to configure dos for the program like any Dos computer. What does it want?

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

David -

Two of the DOS programs run fine on Windows XP Home.

The real concern is our estimating/invoicing program (circa 1996). The
manual gives no configuration guidelines, except files must equal 250, in
config.sys.

There is a config.sys file in my C:\ directory which contains 0 bytes.

If I understand your comments, I should edit the config.sys file and enter,
basically, enter the info contained in our Windows 98 config.sys file

 

[Guest]

--
Horatio T Zilch

In horatio <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:


DOSBox, a x86 emulator with DOS:
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

-------------------------------------------------
Galen -

My wife's name is Gailon - same pronunciation, I'm sure.

Thanks for the tip on DOSBox. Will look into it at the office where I need
it.

Again, Thanx

 

[Rock]

Hi! I'm having the same problem. I made the mistake of buying Dell with
Windows XP and it will NOT allow me to install any of my MS-DOS programs. I
also stupidly bought the Dell 4yr Warranty thinking it would include support
services. It does NOT. Only for hardware failure. Dell would not answer ANY
of my basic questions about the computer. (I asked if there was any way I
could access MS-DOS on this computer, thinking it might be installed but I
did not know the magic word.) This is my fifth computer (I've had HP &
Gateways before) & this is the first time I've encountered this total lack of
support. My other computers came with MS-DOS (without asking) & Windows. And
HP & Gateway support personnel used to go out of their way to answer ANY
questions about their product. What a shame the computer industry no longer
has any customer support.

<snip>

There is no DOS in XP so it can't be accessed. You can create a dual
boot with DOS as one option if you so wish.

 

[Rock]

In our small business we still use three DOS based programs (as well as a
number of Windows programs). Of primary concern is our estimating/invoicing
program.

Currently, all of our computers are running Wlindows 98, with one exception
which uses Windows XP Professional. XP will not allow us to run our
estimating program nor one of the other DOS based programs.

We have used the Properties Menu and tried numerous settings in the
Compatibility and MemoryTabs, all to no avail.

Our delimma is we need to upgrade one of our graphic arts programs which
will only run on Windows 2000 or XP.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to achieve compatibility with our
DOS based programs and XP Professional (or 2000)?

Look forward to your comments.

Create a dual boot configuration, one with DOS the other with XP.

 

[Galen]

In

Galen -

My wife's name is Gailon - same pronunciation, I'm sure.

Thanks for the tip on DOSBox. Will look into it at the office where
I need it.

Again, Thanx

Not a problem and it should do the trick for you. It's pretty easy but
there's some learning curve. You can have it up, fully functioning, and know
what you're doing well enough in about ten mintues at the most.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[Bill Bradshaw]

My wife's name is Gailon - same pronunciation, I'm sure.

Thanks for the tip on DOSBox. Will look into it at the office where
I need it.

Again, Thanx

If you are going to try DOSBox the following website will give you guidance.

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/

 

[Guest]

--
Horatio T Zilch

Create a dual boot configuration, one with DOS the other with XP.

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

Rock

Appreciate your comments.

I'm not sure how to create a "dual boot configuration." Will do a little
research on this.

If, however, this means selecting to boot in XP or DOS, I'm not sure this is
the answer. In our operation we may have several programs open at one time -
both Windows based and DOS based, toggling between programs as required.

As I said will research this option and see what how it might work for us.

Again, thanx

 

[David Candy]

Config.sys is there for programs that read it to check if they should run. It has no effect on XP, it's just there for programs that expect it. The actual configuration files are in System32, C:\WINDOWS\system32\CONFIG.NT, this is what you change to actually set files to anything other than the default of 40.

But as configured XP gives little memory to Dos as it has networking and other stuff in memory. So make config.nt the same as 98's config.sys.

 

[Rock]

horatio wrote:

You're welcome.

 

[Plato]

I paid MORE than $300 for "support", just about 1/3 of what I paid Dell,
thinking they were going to answer the questions from my mother so I
wouldn't have to do that. Only after I found out that "support" consists

Lets just hope that dell, and other big name brands, are listening.

 

[David Candy]

What did dell call it. Did they call it support.

 

[Don Taylor]

What did dell call it. Did they call it support.

Yes I believe they did call it support, Three years
of their top-of-the-line, for just a bit under $400,
if I remember this correctly.

From their web page:

Extend Your Limited Warranty, Service, & Tech Support Plan
Protect your Dell PC! Increase the life of your award-winning
service and support coverage before it's too late

Sort of like paying the dealer 100% more for "options" needed to
actually be able to USE your new car, and paying them the same
amount more for the premium extra cost warranty for your purchase
and THEN you discover that warranty doesn't actually cover anything
to do with your 100% you paid for those "options", sorry, all that
is outside of any coverage.

I'd dearly love to see their catalog and commercials say, in large
bold print, "OH, AND THIS SERVICE AND SUPPORT, DON'T THINK THAT
MEANS WE PROVIDE ANY SUPPORT FOR FOR ANYTHING BUT BROKEN HARDWARE.
Thank you"

 

[David Candy]

I've bought many Dells. Dell is specified exactly for this feature. We have been happy with it and only expect hardware support and we get great hardware support. When I saved money and didn't buy dell, the warranty company went bankrupt. Back to Dell and this feature.

I would suggest you had unrealistic expectations of it. Every computer had something fail in the first three years, often the mouse or keyboard, sometimes a monitor. and it allows a computer to stay down for less than 24 hours and requires no extra expeniture. If all hardware was like Dell live would be great. If software was like Dell's hardware ...