[comp.sys.amiga] File Corruption

cr1@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Anubis) (01/10/91)

System:  Amiga 3000 expanded to 4 megs with 256x4 ZIP drams.  1
External disk drive.  Internal 40 meg hard drive and of course the 1 internal
disk drive. 1 modem and 1 printer hooked up.

Problem: I am getting text file corrution.  Every once in a while I
will find that a text file has binary garbage tacked onto it.  This seems
to occur to files that have been written to.  I have mostly noticed
this with files I have edited using ED.  What could be causing this?
I 
run virusx4.01 constantly.  I notice no other problems.  Could it be a memory
chip going bad?  What is a good memory tester that will test the Amiga 3000's
memory?  What other problems could this be?  Has anyone else had these 
symptoms?
 
This does not occur often, but it does occur often enough to be
annoying. The other day a text file that contained the file directory for
files on my BBS was mangled, resulting in a software failure.


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daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (01/16/91)

In article <26226@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> cr1@beach.cis.ufl.edu () writes:

>System:  Amiga 3000 expanded to 4 megs with 256x4 ZIP drams.  1
>External disk drive.  Internal 40 meg hard drive and of course the 1 internal
>disk drive. 1 modem and 1 printer hooked up.

>Problem: I am getting text file corrution.  Every once in a while I
>will find that a text file has binary garbage tacked onto it.  This seems
>to occur to files that have been written to.  I have mostly noticed
>this with files I have edited using ED.  What could be causing this?

Assuming you aren't using some alien setup, there's nothing hardware related
that could cause that.  Even if you had incorrectly installed your extra
memory, any failures are far more likely to show up as program crashes than
disk failures (programs tend to crash with exceptions 3 and 4 when you have
flakey memory).  The frequency of your failure doesn't sound like any ordinary
computer failure.  Most problems are constant or growing, not the kind of things
that show up and then disappear.  

Unless you're doing something to bring them on.  I could certainly believe a 
problem in the filesystem itself (which version of the OS are you using), or 
the ED program.  But again, program bugs may not be hit every time you use a 
particular program, but they do generally act in a consistent manner.  I use 
2.0x and a 3000 all the time and have never run into this.  I'm using the very
latest 2.0x at the moment, which you probably don't have.  And I have never 
used ED.  My guess is that, again assuming you haven't drastically altered 
the default A3000 system setup (no PD background programs, unsupported A3000 
register hacks, etc.), you are running into a bug in the filesystem, ED, or 
perhaps some strange interaction between the two.  If there is any consistent 
way to make it happen that can be easily summed up, feel free to send a report
of your problem to the official "bugs" account here on cbmvax.  They'll want 
your Kickstart and Workbench version/revision numbers, hardware info, and a 
list of steps that cause the failure.  

>*     Christoper Roth                         *  "Machines have no 

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
	"Don't worry, 'bout a thing. 'Cause every little thing, 
	 gonna be alright"		-Bob Marley

jdutka@wpi.WPI.EDU (John Dutka) (01/17/91)

In article <17625@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:
>Assuming you aren't using some alien setup, there's nothing hardware related
>that could cause that.  Even if you had incorrectly installed your extra
>memory, any failures are far more likely to show up as program crashes than

On a totally (almost) different note - is there any known problem with 
the Disk-Validator in 2.02?  It doesn't seem to be doing it's job too well on my 3000-25 - validations seem to work much better on my 2000HD...


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