reyn@trsvax.UUCP (06/11/90)
I have a CompuAdd 316sx with 2 meg of ram and the CompuAdd "16 bit" VGA card. Whenever I try to run in the 386 enhanced mode, I get the standard Windows startup screen, and then the screen blanks for 25 seconds before windows starts up. The effect was so disorienting that I had assumed my machine had locked up and had reset it several times before I was distracted long enough for it to complete its business. Once windows finally comes up, everything looks fine and seems to run O.K. I have talked to CompuAdd's service people, they were very helpful but totally in the dark as to what is happening. Does anyone out there have a similar time delay? The "16 bit" VGA card is using the standard windows VGA driver even though it is capable of 800*600 resolution. According to CompuAdd's techies, the enhance driver will be ready in about a month. I have no idea if that will affect boot time. The README.TXT that comes with Win3 indicates that some VGA cards will have troubles in the enhanced mode, I tried all the suggestions but they did not seem to have any effect. I can live with 25 seconds of blank screen if that's normal, my concern is that something is wrong in my INI files and Windows has spent those 25 seconds doing devious things which will come back to haunt me later. John Reynolds
poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) (06/13/90)
In article <292600015@trsvax> reyn@trsvax.UUCP writes: > >I have a CompuAdd 316sx with 2 meg of ram and the CompuAdd "16 bit" VGA >card. Whenever I try to run in the 386 enhanced mode, I get the standard >Windows startup screen, and then the screen blanks for 25 seconds before >windows starts up. The effect was so disorienting that I had assumed my >machine had locked up and had reset it several times before I was >distracted long enough for it to complete its business. Once windows >finally comes up, everything looks fine and seems to run O.K. > [stuff deleted] There is a noticeable delay between the startup window, and getting the desktop. Certainly the speed of your hard disk plays a role here. It used to take 5 to 10 seconds for me with my old MFM controller. When I changed the interleave from 3:1 to 2:1, it improved, then when I went SCSI, it went down to a couple of seconds. This is on a 25Mhz 386 with a V7 VGA. I would imagine this may be a normal delay given the slower CPU, and you probably have an el-cheapo disk controller. You might try getting a hard disk performance utility like hdtest (compuserve). This can be used to tell you your current interleave, then to find out which interleave is optimal. It can even re-format the new interleave onto the disk without destroying data (it works, I know). I suggest you backup anyway, just in case. Russ Poffenberger DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen 1601 Technology Drive CIS: 72401,276 San Jose, Ca. 95110 (408)437-5254
gpsteffl@sunee.waterloo.edu (Glenn Patrick Steffler) (06/13/90)
In article <292600015@trsvax> reyn@trsvax.UUCP writes: > >I have a CompuAdd 316sx with 2 meg of ram and the CompuAdd "16 bit" VGA >card. Whenever I try to run in the 386 enhanced mode, I get the standard >Windows startup screen, and then the screen blanks for 25 seconds before >windows starts up. The effect was so disorienting that I had assumed my When I was using a 386sx with win3, the bootup time was considerably over twenty seconds. But streamlining a few things on your box may help: 1) Create a permanent swap file. If your hard disk is low on megage and/or fragmented the creation of a swap file of 6MB or more would take a long time. 2) Increase the size of the smartdrive disk cache if possible. Win3 loads and parses the .ini files quite a number of times before the screen starts to fill with the main apps. If the main files (USER,GDI,KERNEL...) take too much cache space, the .ini file will have to be re-read. If these don't help, I suggest more memory! 1/2 :-) >machine had locked up and had reset it several times before I was >distracted long enough for it to complete its business. Once windows >finally comes up, everything looks fine and seems to run O.K. > > John Reynolds If you think regular Win2 boots slow...holy mother pearl son you gotta see the blazing turtle neck speed when running in debug! -- Co-Op _____ "Bo doesn't know software" - George Brett Scum _/|__Q_\___ U of | ww--+----#\ "Catch the mystery catch the spit!" - Tom Saywer (Rush) Loo'91 ~~()~~~~~()~~ Glenn Patrick Steffler
bbowen@megatest.UUCP (Bruce Bowen) (07/01/90)
In article <1990Jun12.233313.3502@sj.ate.slb.com> poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) writes: >In article <292600015@trsvax> reyn@trsvax.UUCP writes: >> >>I have a CompuAdd 316sx with 2 meg of ram and the CompuAdd "16 bit" VGA >>card. Whenever I try to run in the 386 enhanced mode, I get the standard >>Windows startup screen, and then the screen blanks for 25 seconds before >>windows starts up. The effect was so disorienting that I had assumed my >>machine had locked up and had reset it several times before I was >>distracted long enough for it to complete its business. Once windows >>finally comes up, everything looks fine and seems to run O.K. >> > >[stuff deleted] > >There is a noticeable delay between the startup window, and getting the >desktop. Certainly the speed of your hard disk plays a role here. It used to >take 5 to 10 seconds for me with my old MFM controller. When I changed the >interleave from 3:1 to 2:1, it improved, then when I went SCSI, it went down >to a couple of seconds. This is on a 25Mhz 386 with a V7 VGA. > >I would imagine this may be a normal delay given the slower CPU, and you >probably have an el-cheapo disk controller. You might try getting a hard >disk performance utility like hdtest (compuserve). This can be used to I have the same problem and I have a full 386 with 4 megs of ram, a 40 meg Seagate st251-1 hard disk and a VGA monitor. -Bruce
markad@blake.acs.washington.edu (Mark Donnell) (07/09/90)
Russ Poffenberger writes: >In article <292600015@trsvax> reyn@trsvax.UUCP writes: >> >>card. Whenever I try to run in the 386 enhanced mode, I get the standard >>Windows startup screen, and then the screen blanks for 25 seconds before >>windows starts up. The effect was so disorienting that I had assumed my >[stuff deleted] > >There is a noticeable delay between the startup window, and getting the >desktop. Certainly the speed of your hard disk plays a role here. It used to >take 5 to 10 seconds for me with my old MFM controller. >[stuff deleted] > >I would imagine this may be a normal delay given the slower CPU, and you >probably have an el-cheapo disk controller. >[stuff deleted] Is it a slow machine and an el-cheapo which is causing the problem????? I have a problem which I think is related (although I haven't had a chance to try it yet). I have a 386-25, 1:1 interleave, WD controller, Connor 40 Meg HD. - Not too much of an el-cheapo. Anyway, I tried installing win3.0 this weekend. After an embarassing problem of trying to use a compressed himem.sys file, I got it up and running and tried to run in 386 mode. The greeting comes up, dissappears, the drive whirrs on, then the screen goes blank.................... Well, windows is up and running - I can type keystrokes and the machine responds properly. Alt-f, Alt-x, <ret> exits from Win and returns the Dos prompt. But while in windows, the screen stays black. A real pretty black, but black nevertheless. It has stayed there for quite some time (minutes, at least). A rather boring window interface, I might say. Win runs fine in real or standard mode. I have a genoa video card and a hires greyscale monitor. I have tried it with the video board's automode select off, and I have tried about 25 different video modes, with windows running with normal colors and mono colors. One particular combo ONCE produced a see'able screen, but when I exited windows (with save), the started it right back up, you guessed it - black. The combo was (i believe) 640x400 2 color VGA. Anyone run into this sort of thing before? If all else fails, there is always to contact the Genoa or my dealer, but if there is a quick fix, I prefer that. Thanks Mark
billp@hplsla.HP.COM (Bill Pritchard) (07/11/90)
Mark Donnell writes: >But while in windows, the screen stays black. >A real pretty black, but black nevertheless. >It has stayed there for quite some time (minutes, at least). >A rather boring window interface, I might say. Something similar happened to me with a Gatway 2000 and a 20MHz 386 CPU board (a BTMxx). My particular problem turned out to be a trackball driver that was not compatible with Windows 3.0. BUT... in researching this, I was told by Gateway that there is a bad datecode on the i386 processor which gives those exact symptoms (sorry I don't know which dates or serial #'s). Gateway would have replaced the processor at no charge, perhaps your supplier would do the same--or at least check it out. Good Luck! Bill Pritchard