[comp.sys.apple2] solution to polling drives with 5.0.3

suem@cbnewsc.att.com (susan.mc kinnell) (01/07/91)

A few weeks back I posted a request for help because whenever
I brought up a program under GS/OS 5.0.3 and tried to open a
folder, my drives polled continuously.  I got several mail
responses suggesting that since 5.0.3 is known to be buggy
I should wait for 5.0.4.  Well, I found out what the problem was
and figured I would post it in case it will help someone else.
The problem arose because I have a habit of booting and testing
new stuff with my hard drive *off*.  Evidently when the routine
that checks for online devices is called, it recognizes that
there are devices in slot 7 (where my hard drive card is), but
does not return the code to indicate that all devices have been
found so the calling program knows to stop calling it.  At least
that is my guess.  All I had to do was turn on the hard drive
and everything worked fine.  (Why do I even turn the hard drive
off?  Well, my house has been zapped *twice* by lightning in
the 10 years I've had Apples; both times the computer was
protected by being unplugged.)
Anyway, thanks to those who responded to my plea for help.
Sue McKinnell
-- 
Sue McKinnell    ...!att!ihlpf!suem	IH 6N311      x5313
		or ...!att!ihlpf.ATT.COM!suem	or suem@ihlpf.ATT.COM

dlyons@Apple.COM (David A. Lyons) (01/28/91)

In article <1991Jan6.190630.20953@cbnewsc.att.com> suem@cbnewsc.att.com (susan.mc kinnell) writes:
>A few weeks back I posted a request for help because whenever
>I brought up a program under GS/OS 5.0.3 and tried to open a
>folder, my drives polled continuously. [...]
>                       Well, I found out what the problem was
>and figured I would post it in case it will help someone else.
>The problem arose because I have a habit of booting and testing
>new stuff with my hard drive *off*.

What hard drive interface card do you have?  I have seen somthing
similar to this before, and here's what was happening:  a SmartPort
STATUS call to the card was indicating that a device was available,
but when GS/OS went to actually read from that device, it got a
"device offline" error.  This is not very polite behavior for a
card, and it understandably confuses the system.
-- 
David A. Lyons, Apple Computer, Inc.      |   DAL Systems
Apple II System Software Engineer         |   P.O. Box 875
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My opinions are my own, not Apple's.