Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (06/16/91)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sat, 15 Jun 91 Volume 91 : Issue 144
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
Shadow RAM / AMI Bios - reclaiming? (V91 #129)
Computer Turn-Offs
Info-IBMPC Digest V91 #129
IRQs and conflicts -- answer
Postscript to ASCII Conversion Available?
Running DOS applications under windows
Three floppy drives?
Today's Queries:
Appletalk for the PC for using Apple LaserWriter Postscript?
A Real Time compression program
Date rollover at midnight
Epson HI-80 Plotters?
Is there a way to use EMS for Windows 3 in Standard Mode?
Need format of popular graphics standards
Problem running Kermit 3.10 under Windows 3.0
Scsi info / tape backup software
Sound Blaster Help!
TSR needed to hotkey to a saved screen
Turning PCs On and Off
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Date: Sat, 01 Jun 91 10:50:39 EDT
From: Glenn Shorrock <R23754%UQAM@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Shadow RAM / AMI Bios - reclaiming? (V91 #129)
Derek Jones <derek@aivru.sheffield.ac.uk> asks in #129:
> Q: If I disable ROM and Video shadowing, I can't figure out if
> that becomes available or not as part of my 4Mb of extended RAM
> (especially for QEMM 386 to see it). I realise that not shadowing
> makes life slow, but I'd love to run QEMM 385 5.11 and Windows
> 3.0(not a) with an acceptable amount of free memory ...
Derek,
QEMM is able to free up some of the shadow ram memory, but not all of
it. However, if you have an AMI bios, you may be able to reclaim 32K
of memory where the bios keeps the boot-up and diagnostic routines.
That's what I do, using:
DEVICE=C:\QEMM386.SYS RAM ROM=F800-FFFF I=F000-F7FF FR=C800
in my config.sys. I keep the shadow of the video bios, but disable the
rom bios shadowing in my setup. I let QEMM shadow the half of the rom
bios that you need to keep (at F800-FFFF). If you ever find out a way
to reclaim all of the ram that AMI reserves for shadowing, I'd really
like to find out.
Regards,
Glenn Shorrock
Math Dept.
Univ. du Quebec a Montreal
R23754@uqam.bitnet
shorrock@info.uqam.ca
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 31 May 91 09:50:00 EDT
From: "Kurt Schmidt" <KURT%SYBIL%RTI.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Computer Turn-Offs
>Date: Wed, 29 May 91 10:52:25 +0200
>From: "Guenter F. Schulz" <schulz@DARMSTADT.GMD.DE>
>You should turn your PC off whenever you leave it for more
>than one hour or so.
Is "one hour" some kind of scientifically arrived at time span or is it
just a convenient figure?
>The increased stress of the electronic parts when turning it on again
>is quite negligible due to the modern design of todays switching power
>supplies. The same holds true for the hard disk.
What about heat expansion and contraction of mother board, chips and
other components? I am also concerned about the fact that most hard
disk drives seem to fail upon turn on rather than once they are
running. Any coments about these factors?
BTW, personally I consider the time the computer will stay off more
important than the time it will not be used while staying on; so, if I
think it will not be used for three or more hours, I turn it off,
otherwise it stays on. How did I arrive at three or more hours...
well, hardly scientifically, but I did some casual measurments of the
temperature near the motherboard, and three hours seem to be needed for
the system to go down to room temperature; i.e., the time for the
temperature measurment to go up to full working level from turned off
level does not change when the computer was switched off for three
hours or more, but is shorter if it was off for less than three hours;
three hours also seems to me to be a reasonable time for mechanical
components such as HD; sort of (it is a poor rendering, but the best I
can do now; don't take it literally, only as an ilustrative example):
time ^
to |
reach usual |
working |
temperature | _____________________________
after being | /
turned off | /
| /
| /
| /
| /
| /
| /
|/
+---+--+--+--+----------------------------------------->
0 1 2 3 4 (hours)
Time the computer was off
Now, my results are with a particular type of computer in a particular
environment and are unlikely to be the same for your case. Also, this
is not a scientific result, just a SWAG.
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------+
| Internet: kurt@sybil.rti.org | Kurt Schmidt |
| Internet: kurt%sybil@rti.rti.org | Research Triangle Institute |
| Bitnet: KURT@RTI | Research Triangle Park, NC |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------+
| Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily my employer's |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1991 May 31 18:22 EDT
From: Bob Babcock <PEPRBV@CFAAMP.BITNET>
Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V91 #129
> Can anyone please let me know if there is a shareware program
>that can save everything that appears on the screen (at least ascii
>text) to a file?
Try CONCPY11.ARC, available at simtel20 and mirror sites in the
<msdos.screen> directory.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 02 Jun 91 14:41:47 EDT
From: Curt Priest <BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject: IRQs and conflicts -- answer
In digest 128 there was a question about reducing COM1-COM4 conflicts
for IRQs. As people add scanners, mice, interrupt driven modems, etc.
the IRQ 3 and 4 available for COM ports is too confining.
Two things:
1. There is a nice little program on most BBSs called IRQR.ZIP which
will show you a list of the 16 interrupts and which ones are currently
in use on your machine.
2. For example, running it on my AT right now it shows that PROCOMM
has indeed hooked IRQ3 to service COM4. It shows that 4, 5, 7, 13 and
15 are available (and shows 10, 11, 12 available but comments they are
reserved).
The main thing is whether both the device board AND software can be
reconfigured to use a spare interrupt. For example, my clone Hayes
modem board has a jumper to use IRQ5 -- only thing is it doesn't work,
on the software side, PROCOMM PLUS does allow you to reconfigure to any
port and any irq for COM1 through COM4. But many mouse softwares don't
support above COM2 and don't permit either reassigning the board's irq
or the driver's irq for the mouse. The same is often true of scanner
software.
Some "pressure" on both the makers of boards and software would help.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 91 22:59:02 PDT
From: raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen)
Subject: Postscript to ASCII Conversion Available?
In <Info-IBMPC Digest V91 #131> Apostolos Ballas
<tolis%lbs.lon.ac.uk@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU> asks if there exists a
Postscript-to-ASCII converter.
Unlike most PDLs, Postscript is a full-fledged programming language.
Consequently, the only way to perform the conversion infallibly is to
write your own Postscript interpreter. For example, I could write a
Postscript file that performs complicated numerical analysis and prints
the results. (Believe it or not, people actually did this once upon a
time!) A more mundane example is a Postscript file that computes and
prints the first thousand prime numbers.
However, if your Postscript is coming from an application, say groff,
odds are that it only uses a small collection of macros. In which
case, it shouldn't be hard to study the macro prologue and write a
custom Groff-Postscript-to-ASCII converter. I've done so, and it's not
very hard.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 91 11:23:00 +0300
From: Eran Davidov <s2525090@techst02.technion.ac.il>
Subject: Running DOS applications under windows
I'm sorry if this reply is a bit cryptic, since I don't know how to use
excepts from the text, before the answer.
The problem with windows, is that when a certain program tries to
access the ports directly, and windows detects a problem with that
(e.g. changing the display ports - as does the PC Magazine VGA test
program) it freezes program execution, and asks you to run program in
background, so that changes will not affect the current screen. It then
(as I understand it) intercepts the changes to the ports, and when you
bring the program full screen, passes the info to the correct ports.
Hope this helps,
Eran Davidov (We meet again - Mario)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 31 May 91 07:50:24 PLT
From: Mike Albrecht <SCBC0001%WSUVM1.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Three floppy drives?
Hello,
The best solution I've found is the CompatiCard from MicroSolutions.
They offer a card that will drive 2 floppies and one for 4. I tried
other routes and always had conflicts or other annoying problems. The
only problem I've had since putting in the CompatiCard is that Mace
utilities doesn't recognize the drive. Norton, PCTools and everything
else has no quarrels with it. The card supports 8 drive types:
5.25": 360KB, 800KB, 1.2MB, 1.2MB dual speed
3.5 ": 720KB, 720KB 600RPM, 1.4MB
8" : Double Sided
The card comes with a good manual and the necessary software.
Note: I have no affiliation with MicroSolutions, just am grateful for
the product.
Good Luck
Mike Albrecht
Systems Analyst/Programmer
WSU College of Business & Economics
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 02 Jun 91 14:52:26 EDT
From: Curt Priest <BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject: Appletalk for the PC for using Apple LaserWriter Postscript?
Like some, I used the Mac for desktop stuff and the PC to be compatible
with everything else. Now I find I can run Pagemaker or FAX receive
boards on the PC and I want to use my Laserwriter. Currently the only
way is via a 9600 baud serial connection which works, but is SLOW!!
Has anyone seen something that plugs into the parallel port or a card
to drive a LaserWriter via AppleTalk? (I could use something like
TOPS, spool the file to the Mac, and then to the LaserWriter, but this
seems too roundabout.)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 91 15:07:29 EST
From: Eric Lam <NCCUS174%TWNMOE10.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: A Real Time compression program
Dear friends:
Does anyone out there know where I can get a program which will
compress the data to disk in REAL TIME.
Thanks for advice.
Eric Lam
National ChengChi Univesity
Taipei, Taiwan.
<NCCUS174@TWNMOE10.BITNET>
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1991 23:27 PDT
From: "CARL FUSSELL, ACADEMIC COMPUTING CENTER" <CARL@SCUACC.SCU.EDU>
Subject: Date rollover at midnight
I am running a 386 machine which remains on 24 hours/day (running DOS
3.1). Does anyone know of a tsr or other fix that will advance the
date properly at midnight? It could either advance the DOS date or
read the CMOS date which is correct.
Thanks for any help.
Carl Fussell
Santa Clara Univ.
Santa Clara,CA
Internet: carl@scuacc.scu.edu
Bitnet: carl@scu
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 02 Jun 91 16:08:06 EDT
From: Glenn Shorrock <R23754%UQAM@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Epson HI-80 Plotters?
I just bought a demo Epson HI-80 plotter at a clearance sale with no
manuals or anything. At $70, the price was right, except that, so far,
all I can produce on it is the power-on self-test. It connects to the
parallel port of my pc and responds a little to the HPGL files I send
it: the plotter initializes itself and then locks up with the error
light on. Does anyone know anything about this beast? Does it emulate
any standard kind of plotter? Was this a good deal? Any help will be
gratefully appreciated.
Regards,
Glenn Shorrock
R23754@uqam.bitnet
shorrock@info.uqam.ca
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 31 May 1991 15:37:10 GMT
From: bgebby@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Brian P Gebby)
Subject: Is there a way to use EMS for Windows 3 in Standard Mode?
How can I access EMS memory in Win3 Standard Mode? I have a 286/12MHz
with 2MB of EMS and 1MB onboard the motherboard.
Help!
Brian Gebby | "The computer is like an Old Testament God,
bgebby@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu| lots of rules and little mercy." --
aj583@po.cwru.edu | John Campbell.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 02 Jun 91 15:47:40 +0300
From: Dov Peter Grobgeld <CFGROB@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il>
Subject: Need format of popular graphics standards
I wonder if there is a documentation file documenting the popular
graphics standards. Also source code using these standards would be of
interest. Especialy I am interested in the PCX and the GIF formats.
Thanks!
Dov Grobgeld
The Weizmann Institute of Physics
Israel
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 31 May 91 16:07:42 -0500
From: emueller@skvax1.csc.ti.com (Ed. Mueller @ 214-575-3429)
Subject: Problem running Kermit 3.10 under Windows 3.0
I'm having a problem with using Kermit 3.10 under Windows 3.0 that
defies analysis. I'm running Kermit on an Ethernet LAN (3C501 card)
using NetBIOS EXNIT 15.22 just fine from PC DOS 4.01 with 4DOS 3.02
shell. I have a PIF file which allows me to run Kermit under Windows.
The first time I run it under Windows, everything's fine. However,
each subsequent time I try to run it, I can successfully get to the
network and enter network commands, but when I try connecting to one of
the VAX machines on the network, I always get a "cannot connect"
message. The NetBIOS is being loaded and unloaded each time Kermit is
run. Also, this is only a problem in 386 Enhanced mode; the problem
disappears when running in real mode.
Obviously, running Kermit somehow changes the state of the machine,
though I am unable to detect how. I also cannot understand why a
change on my PC would allow me to get to the network successfully and
enter commands, but all attempts to connect to a host VAX fail. By the
way, we have two other machines in the area configured the same way and
they haven't seen the problem.
I'd be most greatful for any help/ideas.
- Edward Mueller
emueller@skvax1.ti.com
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 31 May 91 16:25:08 EST
From: "Peter W. Borders" <TCBORDP%VCCSCENT.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject: Scsi info / tape backup software
A friend is looking for information on programming a scsi tape drive.
The drive is a Wangtec 1/4" QIC60 drive, from Colorado Memory Systems.
He isn't very happy with the software and would like to develope his
own to use with this drive. I heard from another source that there is
an ANSI standard command set for QIC60 SCSI tape drives, but I don't
know anything more. If anyone can point me to where I can get some info
on SCSI devices and tape drives specifically I would appreciate it.
Pete Borders <tcbordp@vccscent> : Bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 31 May 91 07:17:43 EDT
From: snoopy@charlot.it12.bull.it (Francesco Iarlori)
Subject: SOund Blaster Help !
Does anybody knows if is there an address for Creative Technology.
(E_mail address).
Does anybody knows if is there an Cre. Tech. Resalers in Italy to buy
the additional chips for Stereo Music?. (i.e.: CMS Sound?).
P.S.: C'e' qualche italiano che ha la passione dei
giochini su PC come me?.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 91 15:05 PST
From: FRANTZM@ULVACS.BITNET
Subject: TSR needed to hotkey to a saved screen
I have noticed lots of screen-saver/blanker programs in the SIMTEL20
MSDOS.SCREEN archives, but have a colleague who is looking for
something a little different. He wants a TSR that will allow him to
hotkey to some previously saved screen image, or possibly even a screen
blanker that will blank to a previously saved image. Do any of the
SIMTEL20 files do this? If I knew a little more programming, it would
probably be easier to write such a thing, but I don't. Any help would
be appreciated... thanks.
Michael Frantz
Bitnet: FRANTZM@ULVACS
University of La Verne, La Verne, CA
------------------------------
Date: 31 May 91 07:00:00 CST
From: "384BMWMAMAC" <384BMWMAMAC@sacemnet.af.mil>
Subject: Turning PCs On and Off
I am trying to get info on which is better. To leave the PCs in the
office on all Day or to turn them off if we leave it for an hour or so.
I have hear both ways, some because of the disk drive motor running I
shuolg trun it off. Second, due to turn on shock we shouldkeep on with
a screen saver in place.
Thanks for any and all info.
Jim Henley
McConnell AFB, KS
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest V91 #144
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