[comp.sys.ibm.pc] stupid question

cs504aa@unm-la.UUCP (David Barts) (05/01/87)

just this morning, my ibm xt has started giving messages
like:

parity error 1
18000

and halting dead in its tracks.  this has happened twice,
both times after exiting from two (different) programs.
sorry to bug the net with this, but i don't have (can't afford)
my own copy of the tech. reference manual.  just what does this
mean (sounds like a pretty general message to me, so i am not
expecting a super-specific answer).  is it a hardware or a software
problem (sure sounds like hardware to me, but i was debugging
an assembler program when the first message showed up, so could
i have done something nasty to a critical memory
location to cause this?).

system is an ibm xt with 512k, one floppy drive, and
one 20 meg hard disk (all standard ibm).  system has surge
protectors between it and the ac line.  we have been getting
thunderstorms here, and system was in operation during one yesterday.
(shudder)
please reply directly to me as i do not normally read this newsgroup.

thanks in advance,
-- 
  David Barts  N5JRN      "The Boy in the Box"
  Arpa:  cs504aa@unm-la.lanl.gov  |  unm-la!cs504aa@lanl.arpa
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