Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (10/11/90)
Info-IBMPC Digest Wed, 10 Oct 90 Volume 90 : Issue 158
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
Re: Hard Disk Troubles
Reformat fixes drifted magnetic fields
Suppresing Kermit's Error Checking
Today's Queries:
AT bus drives
gif sites
Looking for a 'Smart' Spooler
MEMORY BOARDS AND Z-248'S
Patching msdos .EXE files with debug
pc graphics formats
PC Magazine and OS/2
Scheduling Software
SCSI Drive
tape backup system for 286 system
VGA palette "blues"
What is the PKUNZIP saying to me?
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Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 07:47:31 IST
From: uri bliberg <BLIBERG%TAUNIVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Re: Hard Disk Troubles
Funny Messages will appear when the disk fails to start spinning. This
will happen to older units. The only indication is the different noise
the machine makes when you switch it on in the morning but this is not
always easy to diagnose. Strong nerves and a few drops of penetrating
oil at the bottom bearing of the disk (visible under a small plastic
cover at the bottom print) does wonders. I am not sure how long this
remedy will last...It may at least enable you to to retreat gracefully.
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Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 12:18 MET
From: "Jim Groeneveld, NIPG TNO." <GROENEVELD%TNO.NL@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Reformat fixes drifted magnetic fields
I had the same experience as some other contributants reported lately.
I got more and more read failures. ERRMON reported "Sector not found"
and its doc advised to low level format the HD. We had used it since
two years. The complete LL format (incl. FDISK and FORMAT) took rather
much time (especially because HP Vectra's SETUP program began to scan
the present cylinders firstly - unnecessary) but the restoration of the
HD went quick by use of a tape streamer with a complete backup (about 5
min.). The backup itself took a lot of time also because during the
backup the read errors occurred too, while the backup program continued
to try to read the sectors until it succeeded.
Maybe I could just have restored the HD from the tape only, because I
found in advance that files giving problems did not do so anymore after
being rewritten. But to be sure and to write fresh cylinders I
preferred the LL format. It turned out that the 10kb bad sectors we had
previously were gone! Since then no problems anymore.
Now I expect this to happen about every two years. This emphasizes the
need for a good backup, which should be restored quickly. I never
thought of drifted magnetic fields, however, but of slight changes in
the mechanics of the drive (we had experimented with programs that
caused to access higher number cylinders than were actually present,
resulting in clicks from the HD as the head could not be moved farther
inwards. It sounded not healthy and might have caused slight damage).
Anyway, its working fine at the moment and I am satisfied with the
cure. Nothing is reliable forever.
Regards - Jim Groeneveld.
| NIPG TNO <work>: Y. Groeneveld (call name: Jim) <home>| GROENEVELD@TNO.NL |
| Postbus 124 | Wassenaarseweg 56 | Schoolweg 14 | GROENEVELD@HDETNO51 |
| 2300 AC Leiden | 2333 AL Leiden | 8071 BC Nunspeet | TNOSUR::GROENEVELD |
| Nederland (NL) : (+31|0)71-178810 | (+31|0)3412-60413| RULTNO::JIM |
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 12:01:37 CDT
From: david@wubios.wustl.edu (David J. Camp)
Subject: Suppresing Kermit's Error Checking
I just read your December inquiry about suppressing Kermit's error
checking to save time when using an MNP reliable connection. You could
do a raw download. For instance, if you are on a host that will let
you simply 'type', 'cat', or 'fstype' a file, you can tell Ms-Kermit to
capture the screen and let it flow. The MS-Kermit command is 'log s
filename'. Make sure that you have 'set flow on' and that the host
will recognize the flow control to gate the transfer. This will not
work for binary files.
I do not recommend this. The reliability of the link goes beyond the
mode-to-modem portion of the communication. There are several things
you can do to improve the speed of Kermit transfers. The first is to
increase your packet size. Recent versions of Kermit allow packets
near 1000 bytes in length. I usually limit myself to 500, because MNP
modems doing baud rate translation fail with larger packets in non-MNP
mode. The speed of transfer with 500-byte packets is very nearly that
with 1000-byte packets.
I did some benchmarks to compare the speed in MNP stream mode vs. MNP
block mode. My conclusion is that the difference is small, and you are
better off using stream mode to make interaction less jumpy. A much
bigger payoff is gained by using long packets.
Next, use sliding windows if they are available. I have done some
benchmarks to determine the optimum number of windows, and it is 2.
The last thing I can recommend is to use 8-bit communications if
possible. It may be necessary to do more than just 'set parity none',
but I am not sure of this. If you are downloading from an IBM
mainframe, this will probably not work. -David-
david@wubios.wustl.edu ^ Mr. David J. Camp
david%wubios@wugate.wustl.edu < * > +1 314 382 0584
...!uunet!wugate!wubios!david v
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Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 15:52:19 SET
From: Roger Thijs <RTHIJS%BANUFS11.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: AT bus drives
I had heard and read a lot (dispersed) about MFM, RLL, ESDI ans SCSI
drives, but apparently there is something new on the market: the "AT
bus"-drive. Here downtown you pay 25% less for a 110 Mb AT bus drive
than for a 80 Mb MFM drive.
So can somebody please tell:
1. What is an "AT bus"-drive?
2. Are there good publications that describe in one book or article as
well electronics as soft controll info for all types, even including
Apple II+ and Mac?
3. What about compatibility: e.g. Coherent only supports MFM and RLL;
not ESDI nor SCSI, what about AT-bus?
Thanks a lot,
Roger Thijs
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 17:51:01 EDT
From: Kevin Patrick <kevin%tgun.webo.dg.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: gif sites
Does anyone know of any sites containing R and X rated gif files such
as those that used to be on bismarck.cs.orst.edu, curie.cs.unc.edu, and
wuarchive.wustl.edu before they had to remove them for one reason or
another?
kevin@tgun.webo.dg.com.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 1990 16:37 IST
From: MOSHE SOLOW <CUCMS%HUJIVM1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Looking for a 'Smart' Spooler
Hi, could anyone recommend a sophisticated spooler. What I am looking
to do is work with Desqview, connect the serial port to a
comminications port and input files to be printed. Send these files to
LPT1 and print them. That I accomplished and had kermit working in the
background getting the files and redirecting them to the printer. (By
the way only the Beta copy of kermit 3.02 allows this).
What I need is a spooler, that will send the files coming in to a
temporary file and then via aque print them out. (I did this under OS2
using there spooler and it worked fine). I need a spooler that works in
a similar fashion.
Any help would be much appreciated it. M. Solow
CUSMS@HUJIVM1
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 12:14 CST
From: Dennis McCormick <MCCORMICK@VAX1.UMKC.EDU>
Subject: MEMORY BOARDS AND Z-248'S
Help! I have a Zenith Tempest Series version of a Z-248 I bought
used at a surplus house. It has 512K on the CPU/memory card. I bought
the machine as a dual 360K floppy, CGA machine. I have successfully
upgrade it with a Video-7 1024i video card, a Kyocera 40 meg IDE drive
using a Seagate bus interface card, and a 1.44 meg 3 1/2" floppy drive
with no problems. The video board and hard drive controller use the
16-bit expansion slots successfully.
I just bought a new Everex RAM 8000 memory card with 2 Meg on it. No
matter what configuration of backfill and/or expanded and/or extended
memory I use, within seconds of running anything the Monitor-200 takes
control with a "Memory parity error" message followed by register dump.
If I run the diagnostic software that came with the board, it checks
out OK ( I do this with none allocated for the system ). If I run the
Monitor-200 diagnostics with the 2 Meg all allocated as extended
memory it indicates RAM chips errors, but never the same ones twice.
I have read the manual several times to make sure I am not doing
anything obviously wrong in setting it up.
I have talked to the dealer I bought the memory from, and he tells me
there is a possibility that only Zenith memory boards can be used to
upgrade my machine. Has anyone out there successfully upgraded using a
non-Zenith memory board in the 16-bit AT slots of the 248, especially
one that uses 1 Meg chips?
I do not have a technical manual on the computer. If someone can
give me any help I would appreciate it. I really want to upgrade to
multiple megabytes without buying a different machine (or different
memory board -- I got a dandy of a deal on it!).
Thanks ahead of time!
Dennis McCormick
Computing Services
University of Missouri--Kansas City
BITNET: MCCORMIC@UMKCVAX1
INTERNET: mccormick@vax1.umkc.edu
------------------------------
Date: 25 Sep 90 15:26:36 GMT
From: James L. Fox <jlfox@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Subject: Patching msdos .EXE files with debug
Keywords: debug EXE pcdos msdos patch
Would like to hear from anyone who has figured out how to patch .exe
files with msdos debug *WITHOUT* producing a program that (apparently)
wipes out something in dos so that many subsequently run programs hang.
We have followed the procedure in the "MSDOS Encyclopedia" to the
letter. It is clearly stated that debug can't be used to write out a
patched version of an exe file. You must rename the file, patch it,
write it out as though it were data, then finally rename it back to an
exe file. This is where the "fun" begins! Our patches work fine but
when we exit back to DOS, it has obviously been trashed! We even
created a trivial .exe program to eliminate the possibility that we're
doing something subtly wrong with the patch.
What are we missing!!?
--Jim Fox
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 14:34 BST
From: "Doug Moncur, Computing Service" <DGM1@vaxb.york.ac.uk>
Subject: pc graphics formats
Anyone know of a document that describes the Various PC grahics file
formats in general use, in particular PIC, PCX, and GIF ?
Cheers
Doug
Postal Address: Microsystems Advisor
Computing Service
University of York
YORK YO1 5DD
Phone (direct): 0904-433815
(department): 0904-433800
Fax: 0904-433740
Janet mail: D.Moncur@uk.ac.york
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Date: Sun, 25 Feb 90 21:12:56 EDT
From: The Time Traveler <HE891C%GWUVM.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: PC Magazine and OS/2
I'm not looking for anything in particular, I'd just like to know which
archives in <MSDOS.PCMAG> have OS/2-related files. I just got OS/2,
and I'm on a mad hunt for shareware/pd OS/2 programs.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 10:21 EST
From: <TLEWIS%UTKVX2.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Scheduling Software
I am in charge of 3 Microcomputer Laboratories on our campus and we
employ approximately 20 student workers total for all 3 labs. I am
looking for some kind of scheduling software which will aid in setting
up the schedules for these three labs and also have some others on
campus who are interested in this type of software for their own
departments. Can someone recommend some software of this type?
Terry Lewis
University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, Tennessee 38238
TLEWIS@UTKVX
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 10:58 EST
From: <TLEWIS%UTKVX2.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: SCSI Drive
I would like to hook up an apple SCSI drive to a PS/2 model 50Z which
has a SCSI interface. Is this possible? and How?
Terry Lewis
University of Tennessee, Martin
TLEWIS@UTKVX
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 16:49:42 EDT
From: "Michael J. Chinni, SMCAR-CCS-E" <mchinni@PICA.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: tape backup system for 286 system
I am looking for recommendations for a cartridge tape backup system
for a '286 system. System has currently 1 hard drive (40 MB), 2 floppy
drives.
Michael J. Chinni
US Army Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center
Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey
ARPA: mchinni@pica.army.mil UUCP: ...!uunet!pica.army.mil!mchinni
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 00:40:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Brian M. Gottier" <bg0v+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: VGA palette "blues"
Actually, I'm having trouble with the reds and the greens also! Here
is the problem... I am working on a model 70 PS/2 with VGA and an IBM
monochrome (VGA) monitor. I'm reading an IFF/ILBM file and trying to
set the color registers for the VGA to match the color map in the file.
The file stores the color values as one value for red, green, and blue
for each of the 16 colors. I read these values in and use the bios
call to set the red, green, and blue values to the values in the file.
What's wrong?... For example, I try to set color 14 to black. I enter
the value of 0x3f for each of rgb for color 14. (only the lower six
bits are significant) I then read the values of rgb for color 14 and,
sure enough, they are all 0x3f. However the areas of the screen that
have values of 14 are not black at all. By the way, if I set the color
by just setting color 14 to 0 (with the setpalette function in Turbo C
or the equivalent BIOS call) the areas which have color 14 do indeed
display in black.
All references to 0xff should be 0x00 for black. The problem still
persists though. Setting the rgb values to 0x00 for color 14 does
not change areas of the screen drawn in color 14 to black.
Can anyone shed any light on this for me??? If you post to the bboard,
please also send mail to me directly.
Thanks!!!
Brian
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 10:33:00 CDT
From: "H. Alan Montgomery" <FHD%TAMCBA.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu>
Subject: What is the PKUNZIP saying to me?
So I got into ftp and dialed up SIMTEL20 and got this program
called SNAP402D.ZIP that does documentation for dBASE source. I got it
onto my A-disk in VM/CMS. All of the records of the file were 8192
except the last. The RECFM was V. I checked and the file was
definitely in ASCII. So I invoked KERMIT. I issued the SET FILE BINARY.
And did the send to my micro. When I invoked PKUNZIP on my micro, I
get a message saying: Warning! I don't know how to handle: file.ext
"file.ext" was correct for all the files that were supposed to be
in SNAP402D.ZIP. I got the above message for all the files, but one.
It unZIPped that one. That file PERSONAL.KEY was four lines long, i.e.
real short.
I tried all the permutations of downloading from KERMIT: I tried SET
FILE V-BINARY and SET LRECL 8192. Each time I get the result when I
invoke PKUNZIP, i.e. all files but PERSONAL.KEY do not get unZIPped.
After 4 tries, I am unable to get it to work.
Anybody got an idea of what is going on?
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest V90 #158
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