Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (04/10/91)
Info-IBMPC Digest Thu, 4 Apr 91 Volume 91 : Issue 81 Today's Editor: Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil> Today's Topics: Send Replies or notes for publication to: <INFO-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL> Send requests of an administrative nature (addition to, deletion from the distribution list, et al) to: <INFO-IBMPC-REQUEST@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL> Archives of past issues of the Info-IBMPC Digest are available by FTP only from WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL in directory PD2:<ARCHIVES.IBMPC>. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1991 10:00:18 EST From: "William W. Plummer" <plummer@altacoma.wang.com> Subject: Re: $25 network Actually, $26.50 with postage! It works, too. UNLESS you have a modem on COM4 the way I do. Telephone support has suggested several cures, but I still have to unplug the modem to use the network on COM2. If anyone has solved this problem, I would certainly appreciate hearing about it. NB, my mouse is on COM1. There are no TSRs running that use COM ports. The problem is almost certain to be a conflict on IRQ 3. Thanks for any help! William W. Plummer Work: 508-967-4870 plummer@wang.com Home: 508-256-9570 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 14:11:29 EST From: James Williams <James_Williams@ESS.NIAID.PC.NIAID.NIH.GOV> Subject: Accelerator cards >Why use an accelerator card when a complete new mother board doesn't >cost more.... You will have less trouble with it and you will get a >faster machine in the end: system performance is not a question of CPU >speed only -- even though Landmark suggests this. A good accelerator card and a new motherboard may cost about the same amount. But, it is not a fair comparison. Replacing the motherboard has a lot of additional costs. If you replace the motherboard, you must replace all RAM, the Floppy Controller, and the Hard Disk Controller. If your keyboard doesn't have an AT switch, you must replace it. And, you will probably also loose all of your COM: ports. Don't backup your hard disk with LapLink, you'll never get the data back. (Unless, of course, you want to buy new COM: ports). [Isn't LapLink a program to transfer data/programs from one computer to another? I don't recall it being a backup program... gph] All of this will run you around $800. Let's not even talk about your slow hard disk or double density floppy drive. Sure, the motherboard is a much better option, but at these prices you could almost by a new 386 machine. -------------------------------------------- | James Williams | | Bitnet: JWW%ESS%NIAID@NIH3PLUS.BITNET | | Internet: JWW@ESS.NIAID.PC.NIAID.NIH.GOV | -------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 13:57 MET From: "Jim Groeneveld" <JIM%RULTNO@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: Re: disable control-C There exists (somewher on SIMTEL20?) a resident program (in CADEL.ZIP) CADEL.COM that "eats" control-alt-del, control-c and control-break. This program may be specified as the first program (to load) from AUTOEXEC.BAT (or with some utility I remember for that purpose from CONFIG.SYS). This disables the keys. BREAK OFF from CONFIG.SYS or DOS only prevents a break during all DOS operations except during keyboard, screen, printer or aux input and output operations. OFF already is the default. [CADEL may be found as PD1:<MSDOS.KEYBOARD>CADEL.ZIP gph] I hope this helps, Regards - Jim Groeneveld. E-mail: GROENEVELD@NIPG.TNO.NL (RFC-822/internet-type Bitnet address) GROENEVELD%NIPG.TNO.NL@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (from Internet) _ _ _ _ File xfer: GROENEVELD@HDETNO51.BITNET (EARN address) | | | | | \ / | NIPG-TNO [postal/visiting address] | Y. Groeneveld | | | | | \ / | P.O.Box 124 | Wassenaarseweg 56 | Schoolweg 14 | | | | | \/ | 2300 AC Leiden | 2333 AL Leiden | 8071 BC Nunspeet _ | | | | | |\ /| | Nederland (NL) | (+31|0)71-181810 | 03412-60413 | |_| | | | | | \/ | | [office] Fax (+31|0)71-176382 | [home] \___/ |_| |_| |_| ------------------------------ Date: 28 Mar 91 18:24 -0800 From: Joseph Gil <yogi@cs.ubc.ca> Subject: Disable Ctrl-C The solution for this problem is quite simple and elegant. In your config.sys add a 'shell=' directive, specifieng the path to your command.com. In the end of the parameters list add 'nul' Example: SHELL=c:\command.com/p nul *most* versions of DOS will start command.com reading and writing from the nul device. Do not forget to issue ctty con at the end of your autoexec.bat. -Yossi ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 1:07:39 CST From: david@wubios.wustl.edu (David J. Camp) Subject: Norton Saves the Day! We had a major windstorm in St. Louis today that caused many fires and caused many power line problems. I had a succession of dropouts while working on my computer. A couple of times the partition information on one of my hard disks was damaged. Luckily, I had purchased Peter Norton's Utilities within the last week. Since I was using Image and Disk Doctor, the disk was restored in little more time than it takes to boot. Later that evening, I saw a spectacular electrical fire atop a utility pole. A 2-inch diameter spark was sputtering continuously, as bright as a streetlight. It seemed to be located where a cable sat on top of an insulator, so perhaps the insulator was burning! -David- # david@wubios.wustl.edu ^ Mr. David J. Camp # # david%wubios@wugate.wustl.edu < * > +1 314 382 0584 # # ...!uunet!wugate!wubios!david v "God loves material things." # # abs (investment#1 - investment#2) << abs (anyinvestment - anydebt) # ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 13:56 MET From: "Jim Groeneveld" <JIM%RULTNO@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: Program input/ouput capture Gray Cluley <gm_cluley@prime2.bristol-poly.ac.uk> asked about capturing program input/output: Dear Gray Cluley, To solve your problem you may obtain the program PRNDSK from SIMTEL20 (probably a .ZIP file, but I don't know which directory). This is to me the nicest and mostly extended resident program to capture printer output to another device (disk). If you load the program, start your application and press Ctrl-PrtSc (for printing anything scrolling over the screen) all screen contents (input and output) will go to a specified device (diskfile). I hope this helps, Regards - Jim Groeneveld. E-mail: GROENEVELD@NIPG.TNO.NL (RFC-822/internet-type Bitnet address) GROENEVELD%NIPG.TNO.NL@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (from Internet) _ _ _ _ File xfer: GROENEVELD@HDETNO51.BITNET (EARN address) | | | | | \ / | NIPG-TNO [postal/visiting address] | Y. Groeneveld | | | | | \ / | P.O.Box 124 | Wassenaarseweg 56 | Schoolweg 14 | | | | | \/ | 2300 AC Leiden | 2333 AL Leiden | 8071 BC Nunspeet _ | | | | | |\ /| | Nederland (NL) | (+31|0)71-181810 | 03412-60413 | |_| | | | | | \/ | | [office] Fax (+31|0)71-176382 | [home] \___/ |_| |_| |_| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 15:58:38 GMT From: Pedro Ferreira <MPAF%PTIFM2.IFM.RCCN.PT@uga.cc.uga.edu> Subject: Reply to E. Cadima E. Cadima asked about a utilitie to read n characters from a file starting in position k, for example: rf file 10 100 should read 100 characters from file starting in position 10. In a UNIX system you can combine the head and tail programs to obtain the desired result. In any case the following C program should work in MS-DOS, OS-2 and UNIX systems (I have tested with Borland Turbo C++): ------Program Start----- #include <stdio.h> main(int argc,char *argv[]) { int rc=0; long start, count; FILE *fp; if (argc != 4) bye("Invalid arguments\n"); if ((fp=fopen(argv[1],"r")) == (FILE *)NULL) bye("Error opening input file\n"); start=atol(argv[2]); count=atol(argv[3]); rc=file_output(fp,start,count); exit(rc); } bye(char str[]) { fprintf(stderr,"%s",str); exit(1); } file_output(FILE *fp,long start,long count) { long i; int ch; if (fseek(fp,start,SEEK_SET)) return(1); for(i=0;i<count;i++) { ch=fgetc(fp); if (ch == EOF) return(1); fputc((char)ch,stdout); } return(0); } Pedro Ferreira (MPAF@PTIFM2.IFM.RCCN.PT) { int rc=0; long start, count; FILE *fp; if (argc != 4) bye("Invalid arguments\n"); if ((fp=fopen(argv[1],"r")) == (FILE *)NULL) bye("Error opening input file\n"); start=atol(argv[2]); count=atol(argv[3]); rc=file_output(fp,start,count); exit(rc); } bye(char str[]) { fprintf(stderr,"%s",str); exit(1); } file_output(FILE *fp,long start,long count) { long i; int ch; if (fseek(fp,start,SEEK_SET)) return(1); for(i=0;i<count;i++) { ch=fgetc(fp); if (ch == EOF) Pedro Ferreira (MPAF@PTIFM2.IFM.RCCN.PT) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 13:55 MET From: "Jim Groeneveld, NIPG-TNO, Leiden, NL" <JIM%RULTNO@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: system problem (runs CONFIG.SYS, but not AUTOEXEC.BAT) To: engp0017@nusvm,INFO-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL Subj: RE: system problem (runs CONFIG.SYS, but not AUTOEXEC.BAT) Dear Vincent Chan, I do not know the configuration of your system, but I assume strongly you have some SHELL statement in your CONFIG.SYS. If you do not have included the '/p' like in: 'SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /E:1024 /P' then AUTOEXEC will not run. You must explicitely include the '/p' option to have AUTOEXEC run. [The /p option also makes COMMAND.COM permanent... Kinda like a TSR but not really. gph] I hope this to be the solution of your problem. Regards - Jim Groeneveld. E-mail: GROENEVELD@NIPG.TNO.NL (RFC-822/internet-type Bitnet address) GROENEVELD%NIPG.TNO.NL@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (from Internet) _ _ _ _ File xfer: GROENEVELD@HDETNO51.BITNET (EARN address) | | | | | \ / | NIPG-TNO [postal/visiting address] | Y. Groeneveld | | | | | \ / | P.O.Box 124 | Wassenaarseweg 56 | Schoolweg 14 | | | | | \/ | 2300 AC Leiden | 2333 AL Leiden | 8071 BC Nunspeet _ | | | | | |\ /| | Nederland (NL) | (+31|0)71-181810 | 03412-60413 | |_| | | | | | \/ | | [office] Fax (+31|0)71-176382 | [home] \___/ |_| |_| |_| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 14:55 MET From: "Jim Groeneveld, NIPG TNO." <GROENEVELD%TNO.NL@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: RE: reading 41st track of 360k floppies (V91 #53) I just have uploaded for the subdirectory <MSDOS.DSKUTL> ULTRA.ZIP Ultra-Utilities, very deep disk manipulations This set of programs (not by me) a.o. allows for formatting, reading and writing extra tracks on 360k floppies. I hope this may help the one(s) looking for such facilities. Regards - Jim Groeneveld. E-mail: GROENEVELD@NIPG.TNO.NL (RFC-822/internet-type Bitnet address) GROENEVELD%NIPG.TNO.NL@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (from Internet) _ _ _ _ File xfer: GROENEVELD@HDETNO51.BITNET (EARN address) | | | | | \ / | NIPG-TNO [postal/visiting address] | Y. Groeneveld | | | | | \ / | P.O.Box 124 | Wassenaarseweg 56 | Schoolweg 14 | | | | | \/ | 2300 AC Leiden | 2333 AL Leiden | 8071 BC Nunspeet _ | | | | | |\ /| | Nederland (NL) | (+31|0)71-181810 | 03412-60413 | |_| | | | | | \/ | | [office] Fax (+31|0)71-176382 | [home] \___/ |_| |_| |_| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1991 11:47:00 -0500 From: <MULTI@TRIUMFER.BITNET> Subject: Adaptec ACB-2070A controller information needed I have an Adaptec ACB-2070A controller in my IBM-PC/XT. Recently it has become necessary for me to swap out the 10 mHz turbo motherboard and replace it with a 12 mHz turbo motherboard. 12 mHz seems to cause problems with the Adaptec creating files marked as "cross-linked" by CHKDSK. At the same time, the floppy disks perform flawlessly at 12 mHz. Does anybody have any suggestions to help "persuade" the Adaptec to work properly at 12 mHz. On another topic, how does Phoenix bios change the clock speed. What value is written to which port to toggle the clock speed. I would prefer not to have to disassemble the Phoenix EPROM to find out... Ya'akov N. Miles, <MULTI@TRIUMFcl.bitnet> ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 21:37:04 EST From: Michael Huynh <HUYNHT@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU> Subject: FTP/INTERNET Greeting everyone! I have a Novell NetWare fileserver v3.1 and I would like to know if I can be able to use FTP/Internet? Is there an NLM mod. for this available? Any suggestions? My fileserver is connected to the IBM/CMS mainframe through a gateway. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 14:58:44 EST From: Bill Jones <wejones@crdec7.apgea.army.mil> Subject: Help! Problems. I have a gateway-2000, 20 MHz 386 system, and have been using a wefax board (and program) for 6-7 months with no problems. This Christmas I got a few accesories that I tried to install, first a second hard disk, (that went ok), then I switched DOS versions from 3.3 to 4.01 (on the first logical drive of the first drive, but nowhere else (probably mistake #1). Then I installed Windows 3 (seemed to go ok). Then I tried to run my wefax program under Windows 3 (it bombed). At this point (before rebooting the next day), I tried to install a new computerized weather station board, but the computer would not even go through its initial checkout let alone boot up (nothing appeared on the monitor)! I pulled out the new board, and although it went through the checkout, it was going VERY slow, and once through, as it was beginning to go into the bootup routine it gave an "XCMOS checksum failure" error message, but then went on to boot normally. Confused by this, but remembering that a few days earlier the system had lost a few days on its clock, I thought that perhaps the CMOS battery was dead, so I checked, and sure enough, it had lost all knowledge of my second drive. I replaced the battery, and reprogrammed in the drive data, but still got the XCMOS error. I also found that my modem was no longer working properly. I then decided to convert over all the drives to DOS 4. Hours of file copying, fdisking, and formatting later, I finished, and on rebooting, got no XCMOS error. Now I tried to run my wefax program again, and it bombed again (not through windows this time), and after rebooting I had the XCMOS error back again. I assumed that my wefax program was not DOS 4 compatable, so I decided to go back to DOS 3.3. Hours later, back with DOS 3.3, I still get the XCMOS error. Somewhere along the line, however, my modem came back to life, and the computerized weather station program and board began working, so everything is back to normal except that my wefax board was shot (I have tried it on other computers, and found that a few chips had been destroyed. I fixed the board and it now works), and my computer still gives the XCMOS checksum failure message. The CMOS setup seems to have the proper information (at least with respect to time, drives, monitors, keyboards, etc. It doesn't go into memory allocation, clocks, etc.). Anyway.... * Does anyone have any idea what could have caused all this? * Could software incompatabilities cause a board to burn out? * What does the XCMOS error refer to? (Also, how does one access the XCMOS memmory, ie where is it in memory, or is it accessed through ports somehow? And, where is/are the chip/chips located, on the motherboard, drive controller board or video board {I assume that it is on the motherboard, except that if I remember properly I think I found the string message for the error in a rom area associated with one of the accessory boards, can't remember which one}) * All three boards I was having trouble with use Ports (different ones) and/or interupts, particularly timer interupts. I was making my first attempt at using enhanced mode to try some multitasking about the time the troubles began. Do the ports behave any differently in enhanced mode such that a conflict may have appeared that would not have existed in real mode? I have read postings about windows-3 taking control of the timers, could this have interfered with a data acquisition board which uses D-A's and A-D's in conjunction with timers (ie, if the timers are messed up, could a D-A develope too high of a that could have burned out the chips? * When I first got my computer, the CMOS setup described my 65 MB RLL drive as a 40 MB drive. This seemed strange, but I had read about RLL drives functioning by lying to DOS, etc, so I left it alone. When I reprogrammed the CMOS to put in the second drive, I likewise lied about it, but have since changed both to reflect the true size of the drive. How might this have affected my problems? Which should it be? What is the true dos 3.3 size limit, I have heard 32 MB, but nominal 32 MB is really around 33 MB. Some of my partitions have 33 MB actual, is this a problem for dos 3.3? * Is there more than one CMOS chips? Ie, one for motherboard and others for the disk and video controller boards? Any and all suggestions and/or explanations will be appreciated. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1991 17:30:43 EST From: GENTZEL@POLYA.PSC.EDU Subject: Help finding fast serial card I am looking to buy a serial board for a 386 AT clone and am concerned about operating at high baud rates. I may well be wanting to use 19,200 or 38,400 baud and want to make sure that the board can handle this without dropping characters. The book "PCs From Scratch: Designing and Assembling Your Own Custom PC" by Tom Badgett, Corey Sandler, and Wade Stallings recommends getting a board based on the 16450 UART if you require 9600 baud or greater speeds. However, asking most mail order houses (even their tech support lines) what serial chip (never mind "UART") their boards are based on usually gets confused mumblings, or such gems of wisdom as "the usual one." Can anyone either 1. Tell me where I can get a serial board based on the 16450 (or similar performing) UART. 2. Describe their experiences (good or bad) they have had operating their serial ports at high (> 9600) speeds. Please include, if possible, the brand/vendor of your board. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Dave Gentzel gentzel@polya.psc.edu gentzel@cpwpsca.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 09:30:28 EST From: nguyen%master.dnet%dxi.nih.gov@uga.cc.uga.edu Subject: INFOMATION ON FAX MODEM AND CD ROM I have a couple question about the network fax modem and the cd rom. Does any one currently using or knowing any network fax modem or cd rom that can work under PATHWORK from DEC for both PC and MAC.???? So far I have not seen any products that support BOTH pc and Mac. They either support pc only or mac only, but not both. If any body have any information on the fax modem or cd rom, I sure would like some information... If you reply directly to me and not the list, I will summarize. Thank you for your time and information. Khoi Nguyen BITNET --- NGUYEN%master.dnet@dxi.nih.gov ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 11:05:07 EST From: "Andrew L. Brant" (IBD) <abrant@BRL.MIL> Subject: Maximum amount of memory for a 386 Does anyone know what the maximum about of RAM that can be used in a 386 machine? Is it different for OS2 or MSDOS4.x? What is the limiting factor? Thanks, andy <abrant@brl.mil> ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 16:38:31 EST From: hsw@columbia.sparta.com (Howard Weiss) Subject: MS-Windows and VPIX Has anyone been successful in running windows under VPix? I am running VPix version 1.2 on Interactive UNIX 2.2 and I can sort of get a version of Windows/386 (version 2.1) limping under VPix, but it tells me that my machine configuration has changed (after waiting for about two minutes for it to start up) and I can't reinstall it because the setup program tells me that I don't have a 386 machine (VPix presents a real mode machine - although the VPix documentation says that it "supports popular PC aplications and DOS facilities that run on IBM PC AT-compatible systems" - which sounds like 286 machines). When I start up Windows-3, I get the startup screen and then VPix crashes with a "General protection fault, cannot emulate instruction" message. The VPix version 1.2 release notes say that "VPix has been made less prone to failure when using the serial mouse. This will alleviate problems seen when using the Microsoft serial mouse with Microsoft Windows." This leads me to believe that there is a way to get windows running on VPix. Any experiences would be appreciated. Thanks, Howard Weiss hsw@sparta.com (301) 381-9400 x201 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 10:50 EST From: "Bob Newlin" <DBHIVE%DUKEMVS.BITNET@ncsuvm.ncsu.edu> Subject: OCR Is there any good PD or SW OCR programs out there that will read files from a TEFAX scanner or BSP, PCX, TIF files these can be converted to? Thanks, Bob Bob Newlin, PhD BITNET: DBHIVE@DUKEMVS Associate Dir., Planning Office INTERNET: DBHIVE@DUKEMVS.AC.DUKE.EDU 106 Jordan Bldg Duke University, Durham, NC 27706 919-684-2331 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 14:47 GMT From: "Hu Weiping" <87701324%dcu.ie@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU> Subject: Program execution timer Hello, all. I remember there was a program in simtel for measuring the excution time of other programs, but can't recall the name and directory of the file. Could any kind soul remind me of that? Also, if I am going to write my own program to do that, what function should I use, if I am using Turbo C 2.0? I tried gettime, but that gives strange values for the same program, I mean different values. Any help would be appreciated. Weiping Hu, Dublin City University, Ireland ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 11:17:47 EST From: Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> Subject: 9.x release of Clarkson packet driver collection Summary: Reposted by Keith Petersen The 9.x release of the Clarkson collection of packet drivers is now available from SIMTEL20: pd1:<msdos.ka9q-tcpip> DRIVERS.ZIP Clarkson packet drivers wo/src for KA9Q TCP/IP DRIVERSS.ZIP Clarkson packet drivers w/src for KA9Q TCP/IP Please discard the 8.x release, as the -n switch is broken in it. The packet drivers are for MS-DOS, and serve to hide the difference between network cards, and allow multiple protocol stacks to access the same card. Most often people are interested in running Novell's Netware and TCP/IP at the same time. Summary of changes in the 9.x release: The -n switch works again. It was broken in the 8.x release. Bugs fixed: ibmtoken, others. The Clarkson packet driver collection Availability The Clarkson collection of packet drivers is available by FTP, by archive-server, and by modem. They come in two flavors -- executables only (drivers.zip), and source+executables (driverss.zip). All of the following instructions apply to both drivers.zip and driverss.zip. Mail: I distribute the packet drivers on two 360K 5.25" disks, or a 720K 3.5" disk. I charge a fee for the service of copying and mailing these disks. You can send me a check for $20, or you can send me a purchse order and I will bill you for $22. NY residents add 7% sales tax, overseas orders add $3 for shipping. If you send a check, please be sure it is in US dollars -- the bank charges me $15 to convert checks drawn in foreign currencies. Russell Nelson 11 Grant St. Potsdam, NY 13676 FTP: sun.soe.clarkson.edu:/pub/ka9q/drivers.zip grape.ecs.clarkson.edu:/pub/msdos/tcpip/drivers.zip E-mail: Send mail to archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu and put the following command as the body of your message: help This will send you a help message. Reading this help message will tell you how to fetch the packet drivers. Modem: Call the Clarkson Heath User's Group's BBS: (315)268-6667, 8N1, 1200/2400 Baud, 24 hours. You may need to press break, or simulate it using several nulls. Download pub/msdos/tcpip/drivers.zip. ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest V91 #81 ******************************** -------