[comp.windows.ms] non-window applications in Windows

tcheng@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Tony C. Cheng) (11/18/90)

I'm using a AT&T 6386/25 with VGA and 4mb of extended memory.  At
first I thought that non-window applications cannot run in windows but
the full screen.  Then few days ago a friend told me that non-window
applications can run in Windows 3.0, so I digged into the manual trying to
make my non-window applications run in windows, but what I got was 
always the same--- a window with BLACK background and a white cursor
on the top left corner(of curse I can run the application in full
screen by <alt><enter>, yet this does not solve my puzzle).  The
manual said that if the windowed display is missing, I should adjust 
the Monitor port to adopt application display requirement, so I tried
every option, but nothing ever worked. 

Does anyone has similar experience?  Or is there anyone who can tell
me what went wrong?  The VGA adapter is the one bundled with the 
AT&T 6386/25, is it that I need a specific driver to make it work with
Windows 3.0 for the non-window applications?

Any hint on this will be greatly appreciated!

ps. the non-window applications I tried are:
	Program Editor
	Kermit
	AT&T Telnet
	WordPerfect 5.1
	PlanPerfect 5.1
	DrawPerfect 1.1

=============================================================================
  Tony C. Cheng 		       |  tcheng@silver.ucs.indiana.edu  
  Education Technology Services        |  tcheng@aqua.ucs.indiana.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------- INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON ----------------------
=============================================================================

bradd@gssc.UUCP (Brad[null] Davis) (11/20/90)

tcheng@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Tony C. Cheng) writes:
>I'm using a AT&T 6386/25 with VGA and 4mb of extended memory.

Normally, this would mean you are enhanced mode.  You can verify this by
going to the control panel and seeing if the "386 Enhanced" icon is present.

[He was running a DOS application in an enhanced mode window;
 the result is all-black window with a white cursor in upper left corner.]

This sounds like the virtual PC in the window is emulating a Monochrome
text mode while the software thinks it has a Color display.  (Or perhaps
the reverse).

Is your VGA attached to a COLOR or a MONO display?  Did you tell SETUP the
truth when you installed Windows?  Do you have two displays in your system?

An experiment I suggest you try:  Run a COMMAND.COM session without
an application inside.  If COMMAND.COM understands the video mode, you
will see the DOS boot banner and be left sitting at the DOS prompt
inside the window.  If you see a blank window like you usually do,
type "MODE MONO" and press return; if that doesn't help, enter "MODE CO80".

If the above gets you a DOS prompt, then Windows is confused about whether
you have a color or monochrome monitor.  If your VGA has switches, you
should verify that you don't have it set up for mono but plugged into a
color display (or vice versa).  The VGA cable has a wire in it that should
be driven by the monitor to indicate whether the monitor is color or not.
Some displays don't drive it, and some VGAs can be confused by this.
(I've seen this happen most often after a warm boot).

>Does anyone has similar experience?  Or is there anyone who can tell
>me what went wrong?  The VGA adapter is the one bundled with the 
>AT&T 6386/25, is it that I need a specific driver to make it work with
>Windows 3.0 for the non-window applications?

I haven't seen the standard VGA driver have trouble with any of the clones.
Assuming you have the right grabbers installed (i.e. you told SETUP the
right stuff), you should be fine.

>Any hint on this will be greatly appreciated!

Hope it helps.

>=============================================================================
>  Tony C. Cheng 		       |  tcheng@silver.ucs.indiana.edu  
>  Education Technology Services        |  tcheng@aqua.ucs.indiana.edu
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---------------------- INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON ----------------------
>=============================================================================

Random drivel from the keyboard of:                                   +--+
  Brad Davis, GSS Inc, Beaverton OR  _________ -_--_  ________________|80|__
  bradd@gssc         (503) 641-2200    --  --  =o==o=  --  --  --  -- +__+
Disclaimer: The boss disavows        ----------------------------------||---
  all knowledge of my actions.                                         ||

tcheng@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Tony C. Cheng) (11/21/90)

Thanks to all who had sent me mails or posted their experiences in the
conference.  Following is the message from the wizard who has same 
equipment as I do and had solved the problem.  

Special thanks to you, Juergen.  One addition here is that I didn't
use the setup disk to screen redirection but used the ROM setup, and
it worked!  

_Tony

============================
From jsh@alice.att.com Sun Nov 18 06:42:29 1990
Received: from INET.ATT.COM by silver.ucs.indiana.edu
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From: jsh@alice.att.com
Date: Sun, 18 Nov 90 06:39:25 EST
To: tcheng@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
Tony: 
Status: RO

I'm using exactly the same machine and HAD exactly the same problem.  PLEASE
read the "readme.txt" file in c:\windows: it tells you that windows does not
like redirected com-ports.  Unfortunately, the AT&T 6386/25 Intel box comes
~v
--------
From jsh@alice.att.com Sun Nov 18 06:48:33 1990
Received: from INET.ATT.COM by silver.ucs.indiana.edu
	(5.61+/9.2jsm) id AA00473; Sun, 18 Nov 90 06:48:32 -0500
From: jsh@alice.att.com
Date: Sun, 18 Nov 90 06:42:49 EST
To: tcheng@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
Tony: 
Status: R

Sorry, hit the wrong key.  Correction:  Windows does not like redirection
of the screen to com-ports.  Unfortunately, the WGS comes with screen
redirection enabled to com2.  You have to run the SETUP from you customer
diskette (not the ROM-version!) to disable screen redirection.  After that,
the puzzle it solved....  I ran into the same trap and only found the
solution after reading EVERY page of the windows manual and ALL *.txt files
at least 5 times...

Hope you did NOT do that...

Juergen

AT&T Bell Labs Acoustics Research Dep. Murray Hill, NJ