[comp.sys.handhelds] Crashed and Ram 2

frechett@snoopy.Colorado.EDU (Mac the Ripper/ / / /) (08/23/90)

I just posted a message about a directory that was in bad shape.  Well, 
while playing with it, trying to figure out what happened, I decide to
try a few things.
The directory is called MUS
I did a 
'MUS' visit
and it paused a sec and then flashed some garbage on the screen and turned 
itself off.  Took a ON-C to get it back on.  Next I tryed, a
'MUS' rcl 
Fine, nothing wrong, then I did an edit.  It spewed stuff all over the place.
shifted the whole screen up about 10 pixels and a about 5 to the right, then
flashed little bits over various parts of the screen for 3 sec and then I 
got .
Try to recover memory?
Yes                 No
I tryed yes and all I was left with was one directory with a scrambled name
so I did a full system reset.  Now, I would like to figure out what did this.
I have had no binary files and the files in that directory where all 2 line
programs haveing to do with musical notes.  Nothing special.  This led me to 
thinking about something that I saw when playing with ON-D.  Unfortunately 
I don't know a lot about the diagnostic stuff.  But I did notice that it will
do a bunch of tests if you press the right keys.  One of them (TAN) will 
do what appears to be a fairly complete check of the system
I do a ON-D and then press TAN and it does this:
spd 19....          (.... can be a variety of numbers)
DISP                (Then does a bunch of quick display tests)
IROM <pause> OK
IRAM <pause> OK
RAM 1 00002          Moving quickly to
RAM 2 00002 <slight pause> 
FAIL 00180      Locks briefly and then repeats whole sequence.  

Now this may be perfectly normal but anytime some electronic device gives
me any type of fail message I start to wonder.  Does anyone know what 
this particular test is supposed to indicate?  Could this possible BUG in my
machine be the cause of things like my directory problem?  I am treading 
on thin air and would love some advice.  I am pulling the batteries and am 
going to let it sit over night.  I tryed it earlier for about 35 minutes and
the clock was still correct when I put the batteries in.  I want it DEAD.  ;)
Any insite would be appreciated.  thanks.

	ian                              frechett@snoopy.colorado.edu

math1i7@jetson.uh.edu (08/24/90)

In article <25075@boulder.Colorado.EDU>, frechett@snoopy.Colorado.EDU (Mac the Ripper/ / / /) writes:
> I do a ON-D and then press TAN and it does this:
> spd 19....          (.... can be a variety of numbers)
> DISP                (Then does a bunch of quick display tests)
> IROM <pause> OK
> IRAM <pause> OK
> RAM 1 00002          Moving quickly to
> RAM 2 00002 <slight pause> 
> FAIL 00180      Locks briefly and then repeats whole sequence.  
> 
> Now this may be perfectly normal but anytime some electronic device gives
> me any type of fail message I start to wonder.  Does anyone know what 
> this particular test is supposed to indicate?  Could this possible BUG in my

Ian,
   I don't have my regular users manuals with me, but I do  have James
Donnelly's book.  On page 98 it describes the test you executed as a
Looping Test.  I tried it myself and got the same thing you did.  I believe
what is failing is just one of the port tests that require the use of a
loopback device (which we don't have installed), or something similar.

As to your problem with the directory that you mentioned earlier, I had a
directory problem myself.  A few weeks ago I downloaded a game program 
and sent it from my Mac over to the HP.  On the Mac, I had a period in 
the file name.  It created a directory on the HP with exactly the same
name, even though a period is NOT a valid part of a file name.  I could
not figure out how to delete the directory (I ended up erasing all of 
user memory).  The worst part is that the backup I had made before 
contained the wierd directory.  I couldn't get it to restore anything...
   I was going to restore memory, then selectively backup my other
directories, then erase memory again.  But when I got to the part of the
restore procedure where you are supposed to put the name of the restore
file on the stack and execute RCL I got an error.  Instead of getting
"Backup HOMEDIR" in level 1, I got a bunch of garbage and could do
nothing with it.... Oh well!

Anyway, I don't think your fail message is serious in this case.

Gordon