repeating keys at Freedos prompt

  • DNS Benchmark v2 is Finished and Available!
    Guest:
    That's right. It took an entire year, but the result far more accurate and feature laden than we originally planned. The world now has a universal, multi-protocol, super-accurate, DNS resolver performance-measuring tool. This major second version is not free. But the deal is, purchase it once for $9.95 and you own it — and it's entire future — without ever being asked to pay anything more. For an overview list of features and more, please see The DNS Benchmark page at GRC. If you decide to make it your own, thanks in advance. It's a piece of work I'm proud to offer for sale. And if you should have any questions, many of the people who have been using and testing it throughout the past year often hang out here.
    /Steve.
  • Be sure to checkout “Tips & Tricks”
    Dear Guest Visitor → Once you register and log-in please checkout the “Tips & Tricks” page for some very handy tips!

    /Steve.
  • BootAble – FreeDOS boot testing freeware

    To obtain direct, low-level access to a system's mass storage drives, SpinRite runs under a GRC-customized version of FreeDOS which has been modified to add compatibility with all file systems. In order to run SpinRite it must first be possible to boot FreeDOS.

    GRC's “BootAble” freeware allows anyone to easily create BIOS-bootable media in order to workout and confirm the details of getting a machine to boot FreeDOS through a BIOS. Once the means of doing that has been determined, the media created by SpinRite can be booted and run in the same way.

    The participants here, who have taken the time to share their knowledge and experience, their successes and some frustrations with booting their computers into FreeDOS, have created a valuable knowledgebase which will benefit everyone who follows.

    You may click on the image to the right to obtain your own copy of BootAble. Then use the knowledge and experience documented here to boot your computer(s) into FreeDOS. And please do not hesitate to ask questions – nowhere else can better answers be found.

    (You may permanently close this reminder with the 'X' in the upper right.)

Tom O

New member
Jul 27, 2024
1
0
Hi Everybody,
I made a bootable usb with Bootable and was able to get the congratulation screen. Upon exiting to the does prompt any key I press will repeat many times over. Any idea what may be the cause. I am using a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. A generic wireless keyboard and mouse was tried also with the same results. I can't find my wired usb keyboard to see if that fixes the problem. My PC has a b450 Tomahawk Max motherboard. I want to fix this before I buy spinrite 6.1. Any help would be greatly apperciated.

Tom

Edit #1.
Just wanted everybody to know that a wired usb keyboard is actually worse! My MB has a PS2 keyboard port and I will borrow one from a friend and try that out and report back.

Edit #2. The old PS2 keyboard worked just fine with no repeating keys on the Freedos text screen. (I almost typed Prodos, from my Apple ][ + days). So it looks like Freedos has a problem with usb keyboad input. Knowing how thorough Steve is with assembly language I doubt he uses a call to Freedos for Spinrite 6.1's keyboard input and writes that part himself. I should be fine buying Spinrite 6.1 .
 
Last edited:
It is probably the wireless keyboard ( or the wireless receiver). Switching to a wired keyboard should solve it.
 
Another modern AMD board. My guess is that this is a BIOS bug. I doubt motherboard vendors do much testing of CSM mode nowadays.

You could try updating the BIOS. If that doesn't work, try booting regular FreeDOS. I doubt this has anything to do with Steve's version of FreeDOS, but it would be worth checking.


You should be able to use Rufus to build the USB drive.