[JohnWill]

I'm not aware of such a virus either.

[enigma_691]

I've been reading around, and everything points to motherboard failure, now how can i save the situation. I'm led to believe that the board with the parallel port must be used, maybe it differes from the regular parallel port. But its ISA, no motherboard today will accept it. And buying something used is a crap shoot.

[JohnWill]

Well, while buying used is a crap-shoot, it's also pretty cheap. As you say, what you really want is some old Pentium I or Pentium II board, not something really new. There are still some motherboards that come with parallel ports FWIW.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131527

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135011

I could keep going, but you get the idea. For $150-200, you can have a new MB, processor, video board, and memory. I think the sticking point might be the video for Windows 3.1, maybe you can find someone with a really old video board that still has Windows 3.1 drivers.

[kilowatt1]

Have you tried new batteries? I have a very old system that did the same thing (keyboard error). This particular computer originally has an odd ball battery arrangement where there was several batteries series together with the positive and negative connection actually soldered to the mobo with wire leads. Anyway, when I checked the output of the original battery configuration the reading was well below what it should be. Here's the funny part. Since I could not find a replacement battery, I made my own and rigged it up to the computer. Low and behold the keyboard error disappeared. As a matter of fact, I still have the computer and believe it or not it still boots up just fine.

[enigma_691]

this system unlike I originally thought, doesnt even have wondows 3.11, only dos, my father n law claims he changed the batteries. Not long ago I had changed the batteries also, and it too had the batteries the same way soldered to the motherboard.

[JohnWill]

If it just runs DOS, then it should be trivial to transition to a new MB, even my latest machines run MS-DOS just fine.

[enigma_691]

but finding a motherboard that will use the isa board is a problem

[nj2b]

Originally Posted by enigma_691

but finding a motherboard that will use the isa board is a problem

Try google for "Socket 7" since you may find a supplier still selling them. Most of those were ISA boards with a few PCI slots, or if timing isn't a problem with the software, many of the PII class boards came with both bus types... give pricewatch a try.

[JohnWill]

Actually, there are probably tons of old systems that can be had for a song and would run this application just fine. Try eBay.

[enigma_691]

I got a copy badcopy pro and it was able to retrieve the files of the floppy that had gone bad. Hope they actually woek, not sure if its a actual program or just a driver for the board. we shall see.

[enigma_691]

Anybody know where I can get Dos

[cwwozniak]

Originally Posted by enigma_691

Anybody know where I can get Dos

E-Bay may be one source ....

http://search.ebay.com/MS-DOS_W0QQfr...titleZMSQ2dDOS

[nj2b]

Originally Posted by enigma_691

Anybody know where I can get Dos

You can download freedos, which is supposedly compatible with MSDOS.

[enigma_691]

Problem apparently resolved, I took the parallel port board and I place it in a old compac I had laying around. I erased the hard drive and I copied the the backup I had of the other machine.
It gave me an error about command.com, so I found the old DOS floppies my father n law had around and I copied the command.com to it. It booted normaly like the other one used to. Now all that is left is to see how it reacts when it is connected to the embroidery machine.

[JohnWill]

There's that "old" machine I mentioned.

I suggest a backup of the software once you get things sorted out so you don't have the same issue a year from now.