ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) (09/27/86)
Recently, I saw one of the worst PC nightmares I've ever heard of. Users at a client site had taken delivery four weeks ago of a Zenith 158 with Windows on it and had been unable to use the machine for anything other than the Windows Reversi game; Windows was all they could see on the machine no matter what they did. The machine could not be booted from a floppy (it had some way of jumping to the autoexec.bat file on the hard disk, which I've never seen before), and even after I got out of Windows via alt-space-bar (which the client folks hadn't been informed of by the vendor) and DELETED the autoexec file on the hard disk, the damned thing STILL behaved as if that autoexec file was still there. The only thing which finally worked was to simply alt-space out of Windows and re-format the hard disk, after which the 158 behaved like an ordinary computer again. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has a reasonably good idea of what I was seeing and how it worked. I personally know very little about windows other than that it doesn't seem to work well without a mouse (I hate mice), that the mag editors all black-balled it, and that I would heavily recommend its ABSENCE on any micro intended for serious use, based on what I've seen. Ted Holden, IMS
ns@maccs.UUCP (Nicholas Solntseff) (10/02/86)
> > > Recently, I saw one of the worst PC nightmares I've ever heard of. Users at a > client site had taken delivery four weeks ago of a Zenith 158 with Windows on > it and had been unable to use the machine for anything other than the > Windows Reversi game; Windows was all they could see on the machine no matter > what they did. The machine could not be booted from a floppy ............ > > Ted Holden, IMS > (1) All Zenith machines have a ROM monitor which can be accessed by the following interrupt ctrl-alt-ins key combination. If bf is entered on the ? prompt, boot will proceed from floppy A; If bw is entered boot will proceed from winchester C. This can be used to avoid a hard-disk boot. (2) Alternately, switch seetings exist to invoke the ROM monitor on power-up, after which proceed as above. (3) Rom monitor help can be invoked by entering ? on the ? prompt. (4) For what its is worth -- I love windows and I love mice; I find myself moving the mouse instinctively now, even if the program I am using refuses to react. MS Windows is valuable to me because it provides a reasonable amount of multi-tasking, which is not, for example, available with GEM or other products. I can have several programs operating in the background while I am engaged in a foreground task. AND IT WORKS! ns@maccs.UUCP (utzoo!mnetor!genat!maccs!ns)