Entering DOS on windows xp machine

Ok heres my problem. I want to upgrade my wireless card but as i found out from these forums IBM has set it so you are only able to use the cards straight from IBM. I have found a program which will allow me to use any wireless card from the following site:

http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mjg59/thinkpad/wireless.html

The problem is in order to use the little proggy i need to be in dos and i have no idea how to get to dos on my machine. I have tried searching it up on google with no luck. My friend made me a boot disk which he claimed would work on an xp but it was a no go.

I just wanted to know if anyone has any knowledge on this and could help me out.

btw im using windows xp home

thanks for the help in advance

 

Do you mean the dos prompt? The real version of dos hasn't been in a windows os for years, but they do include a dos prompt. To access it, start>run>type "command">enter

 

is there a difference between cmd and command?

 

well this is from the site that i posted up above

"There is a DOS program to do that here. I have no idea who wrote this program. This must be run under real DOS, not the Windows command prompt."

So im guessing the person who wrote this wasnt using XP

 

It sounds archaic to me. Yes, there should be bootable dos disk on the internet. They require a floppy. Cmd and command are the same thing. I've used ( http://www.bootdisk.com/). That should be what you need.

 

oh sweet yeah that'll do thanks

 

A dos boot disk will not have access to an NTFS formatted hard disk, so bare that in mind. Dos pre-dates NTFS and doesn't support it whatsoever.

 

you're sure making things complicated for a card upgrade. why do you want to upgrade? is it that necessary? and if so, why not then just get a card from IBM?

 

well i checked the prices on ibms site and some of the prices are ridiculous. Ive been having problems with my wireless card that keeps dropping connection. I have a Intel 2200BG hoping to upgrade to an atheros but i guess im just going to have to live with the continuous drops. Ive already paid alot of money for the laptop and i dont wanna spend a whole lot more to upgrade the wireless. I was just hoping to spend 55US on the group buy in these forums.

Thanks for the help guys

 

have you tried the normal fixes?

update drivers for your card... update firmware for the router... test connection on another router... test connection with ethernet... etc etc ?

have you isolated the fault down to your wifi card (do you get the same drops at on other wifi connections) ?

i have the same wifi card you do and it works flawlessly. i regularly connect to 3 different routers; a trendnet b/g router, a linksys b router and a linksys b/g router. i think you're problem should be quite solveable without an upgrade.

 

Press F8 during boot up and choose DOS prompt. I hope it is still F8!

 

Yes, at the beginning of windows boot, F8 will show you the ways of booting windows.

 

you can try this too...

if you have a windows ME disk then you can go to dos too.

i know its weird asking fo winme but once you load the cd in, restart computer, then a boot up menu shows up

select minimal boot. and you'll reach the hard dos. no windows no nothing.

 

yeah, any disk will do that, but that is still dos prompt not real dos. Basically you are booting from the cd with the fewest drivers possible and some dos commands to prepare the machine for the install of windows ME. Every windows disk except 2000 and XP used this method.

 

Yes i have tried updating driver about last week, i then uninstalled the driver and reinstalled them. I also have tried doing a firmware upgrade on my smc router. My neighbour also has an smc router which i connect to and i get the same problem. I get disconnected after a certain amount of time like when im using msn, or playing starcraft on battlenet.

My problem is probably solvable but i usualy try to take the easy way out