Chris, since there does not seem to be a reasonable or convenient way to run Fractint under Windows XP (see my reports on trying Virtual PC posted to the mailing list 2 years ago), I recommend following this way to, at least, take advantage of some fast contemporary pieces of hardware (CPU, RAM, graphics card): If you can't manage to get hold of a DOS distribution, maybe it is not so difficult to find someone with a PC running Windows 98 (or Windows 89 SE), enabling you to create a DOS disk. Don't forget to add a (generic) mouse driver. On your machine running XP create a small (max 2 GB) FAT 16 partition (DOS doesn't like XP's native file system, NTFS) and put Fractint there. Boot from the DOS floppy, go to the FAT 16 partition (or logical disk drive) and start Fractint. To generate a valid Fractint configuration file (fractint.cfg) with the appropriate video modes allowed for by your graphics card, use the video utility makefcfg. Basically, that's it. (If you want to be more sophisticated and even more fast, you can put EMM386.sys on your floppy, make DOS autoexec.bat and config.sys run Fractint on a ram drive and, by way of sstool.ini, save params and pics to your Fractint FAT 16 partition (or logical disk drive).) Hope this helps. But probably it isn't a bad idea to go looking for Carlos the Compute in the local bars and ask him to help you a bit with tweaking the DOS configuration files until you get the entries right for your particular PC system. All the best, Hans-Joachim Metzger ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Curnow" <curnow@sapo.pt> To: "Fractint and General Fractals Discussion" <fractint@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 2:34 PM Subject: Re: [Fractint] Oh No! Not again!
Thanks for the fast reply David.
From: David Jones
What happens when you try to start Fractint?
Looks good at first, (menu to select screen mode etc) but then black screen all the way until I press Esc a few times to exit Fractint.
You cannot - XP doesn't run DOS. What must you do? You could check around your office for a DOS boot disk, or try one of the free DOS systems around (I have OpenDOS 7.03 around here), or (although this doesn't sound like an option for you) boot a good Linux distro like Knoppix or LibraNet or SuSE or Debian or some others (avoid Fedora or RedHat), try resizing your XP partition, then set up a Linux dual-boot system and run XFractint on it.
Can I download a Dos from the net anywhere? I think I may have the original Dos 6.2 disks in a shoe box in the attic but: a) It'll be a real pain finding the box! And b) They are probably full of dust amd mould!
I'm not, by any means, an operating system guru so, if you feel like replying, please aim at a twelve year old thicko! (I can tie my laces, look mum!)
Careful, a 12-year-old probably could take care of the problem for you .. ;-)
Maybe that's the best bet! Problem is that it's a bit rural around here. Olives and goats are what they're really good at! Oh, and playing shoot 'em ups on the PlayStation they were given for Christmas!
Actually there is a guru in the village. I'd forgotten about Carlos the Compute. Problem is that he is almost impossible to find. I'll have a look in the local bars tomorrow!
Anyway, thanks for the help!
Chris
_______________________________________________ Fractint mailing list Fractint@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint