nelson@kodak.UUCP (Bruce Nelson) (01/14/90)
I have been experiencing a problem with my hard drive in that my ST would seemingly hang when opening a GEM window. (I once posted a note asking for help here.) This problem persisted using different cpu's (a 520 and 1040), and different TOS's (1.0 and 1.4). It persisted with different mmu's. It persisted with different disk driver software (I tried Atari's and Supra's). The only thing I hadn't changed was the disk drive, so I upgraded to a bigger drive, and sure enough, I still had the problem. I finally found the problem! The Thunder! spelling checker accessory (by the now defunct Batteries Included) has an option to select whether or not to load the main part of the accessory. If the program is configured to always load Thunder!, there's no problem. But, if it is configured to bring up the dialog box to ask whether or not to load it, and "no" is selected, then a piece of Thunder! is left hooked into the system which causes the problem. It appears that 8 programs will run before the system hangs. In order to have the option of loading Thunder!, I wrote a small auto folder program to rename Thunder! as required. I will email it to anyone who requests it. Although I know the first rule of debugging these problems is to remove all auto folder programs and accs, and I tried these methods, I never seemed to make the connection of Thunder! in the non-loaded mode with the problem I was experiencing. BTW, Thunder! works ok on TOS 1.4 except for the problem noted. I hope my experience helps someone else out there. Bruce Nelson