anderson@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (11/18/89)
Probably most of us have heard that rudest of all suggestions: RTFM! Well, I shoulda. Hoping to spare at least one other soul a week's grief and worry, here are the facts (as I know 'em). In article <2693@dogie.macc.wisc.edu>, I said: >I'm having a problem with Windows 386. I have a >new machine, Club American 333C (AMI Bios) with >a Sigma Laserview 19" monitor and an MSC PC Mouse II. Further (very relevant) detail: Western Digital WD7000FASST controller (SCSI, with Seagate 267N drive). The problem was: after installing WIN386 umpteen times (that monitor has its own installation process which makes it all take even longer), I would try to start it up, the disk would spin about a second and I'd land back at the DOS prompt. >I called Microsoft (it's Windows 386, v. 2.11); no >help there (nice person, but no help). I called >Sigma, they tell me I have the latest version of their >stuff (the monitor is brand new). I called Club American, >where so far nobody has gotten back to me (maybe they're >looking into it). I heard from Club American today, but they had nothing useful to suggest. So I turned to You Out There: >Any suggestions? A couple folks did respond (since it's email, I won't identify them, but I *am* very grateful to them). >Subject: Re: Windows 386 Problems >I have had similar problems with my 386sx. I have a >Precision motherboard with 2 Megs of RAM, ATI BIOS and >ATI VGAWonder VGA card and software. I think I installed >Windows 386 with the Compaq option, too. However, I just >used the VGA option in the Windows setup (ie. no special >driver). When I type Win386 at the prompt, sometimes >Windows comes up and sometimes I get the Microsoft Windows >intro screen, but then when it tries to switch to the >actual windows, it goes back to the DOS prompt. When this >happens, I can usually just enter "Win386" again and it >will work this time (or at least the next). Pretty similar situation to mine, despite the different monitor. He goes on: >You may want to try using the VGA (or whatever fits your >system) option in the setup to use the Windows driver. >Otherwise, I'm not much help, but I would appreciate you >forwarding any helpful responses you get to me. Thanks! This gave me the idea of installing for a Hercules monitor, since Hercules emulation is built into the Sigma card and does not require the high-resolution drivers. If that worked, it would look more like the drivers were the problem. So I did that. Still no go, same behavior. Then I got lucky. I finally tuned in on the fact that the thing dies while trying to load (the disk whirs, but not long enough to load that large a program, and it croaks before the initial screen (Microsoft's ad, dontcha know). I decided to read all the pertinent documents. Naturally, I did it in the backwards order (Club, Windows, Laserview, Western Digital). Here's what fixed it (mostly, not completely): The disk controller software comes from Columbia Data Products. After the disk is set up and all that, you load two drivers via config.sys: device=c:\dev\sstbio.sys device=c:\dev\sstdrive.sys The first of these has to do with making the ROM information readily available to the controller. Come to find out it takes options, one of them to create a 64K load buffer of some sort *for Windows* (says it there plain as day!). Changed my config.sys to read: device=c:\dev\sstbio.sys /w rebooted, and (wondrous) it worked! Still a bit flakey, though, because it just works *once*. If I exit from Windows and reload, Windows loads as far as the opening screen, then hangs and needs to cold boot to get unhung. I got another suggestion via email that may touch on this question and may also help the first person who wrote. I haven't tried it yet (am presently at home): >Subject: Re: Windows 386 Problems >I had a similar problem except that the disk would >sometimes return after 20 seconds to a minute, and (patient fellow, eh? :-) >sometimes return with an error message. You might try >adding the following statement to the WIN.INI file, it >worked for me. > VIRTUALHDIRQ=OFF >This switch forces windows to use the disk drivers in the >bios instead of its own. Thanks, I'll give that a whirl on Monday. Just proves that reading is good for your health. I mean, I've been doing this computing stuff for 34 years and I *still* can't believe any of it works! ==Jess Anderson===Academic Computing Center=====Univ. Wisconsin-Madison===== | Work: Rm. 2160, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706, Ph. 608/263-6988 | | Home: 2838 Stevens St., 53705, 608/238-4833 Bitnet: anderson@wiscmacc | ==Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu====UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson==
chew@ecf.utoronto.ca (Boon-Ping Chew) (11/19/89)
I had the same problem, ie. Windows 386 try to load and just kicks out to
DOS. I have an Everex 386/25 with 4Megs, ATI VGA wonder with NEC 2A and an
adaptec 1542A SCSI host adapter with a CDC Wren III.
To make a long story short, I call Microsoft and they said that Windows 386
doesn't work with SCSI . They said it might be fix in the version 3.0 release.
The engineer mention that the WD-FASST controller can be made to work but not
very reliably. He indicated that Microsoft didn't anticipate so many users of
Windows 386 to use SCSI. He seem to indicate that Windows 386 address the disk
sub system directly and that in turn got them into problem.
Would anyone like to comfirm what I just wrote ?
Booncelt@portia.Stanford.EDU (Michael Minakami) (11/21/89)
In article <1989Nov19.055244.13099@ecf.utoronto.ca> chew@ecf.UUCP (Boon-Ping Chew) writes: > > To make a long story short, I call Microsoft and they said that Windows 386 >doesn't work with SCSI . They said it might be fix in the version 3.0 release. I have Windows 386 set up with an ST-02 SCSI controller and it works fine. Perhaps it's a function of the card and not SCSI itself. -- Michael -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- | "Truth is but a pattern, one of | Michael K. Minakami | | many, in the eye of the beholder. | celt@portia.stanford.edu | --------------------------------------------------------------------