steves@hpuamsa.neth.hp.com (Steve South CRC) (04/23/91)
Help, somebody please.... I have little enough hair as it is! I have a Commodore PC30 III which is a 286 AT 'compatible'. I have added 1Mb of 80nS extended memory on an Everex card. At 12MHz RAMDRIVE works fine. SMARTDRIVE works fine also. I have extensively run the Everex diagnostics on the ram with no errors (both with ram cold and hot). The problem is that Windows 3.0 runs fine in standard mode at 6 and 8 MHz, but when I try to start it up at 12 Mhz it gives me the logo screen as usual, but then the screen blanks and the machine is completely dead. It has to have a hard reset to bring it back. I even tried firing it up at 8 Mhz, then changing the speed to 12 Mhz (via ATSPEED -D). The trouble is that Windows runs ATSPEED as a DOS application and it then falls over coming back into Windows. I have a feeling that it is a timing problem going between real and protected modes. But why do RAMDRIVE and SMARTDRIVE work ok? Yes, I am using the HIMEM.SYS supplied with Windows, and yes, I have tried everything suggested in the Windows documentation (e.g. himem.sys /M:n etc.) Any suggestions as to how to get round this problem (short of throwing the machine away and buying a decent one) gratefully received. Steve (why was I such a cheapskate?) South HP Analytical, Amstelveen Netherlands.