cjl@uncecs.edu (Charles J. Lord) (03/19/91)
I have two 8Mhz AT 'clones' that both have a strange problem. Both have had '287s in them from the beginning (3-4 years), but recently Norton's SI and a few programs can't detect the coprocessor. It passes the 87test on wuarchive, runs autosketch, QB87, etc but won't run a commercial program from Data Translation (compiled in God knows what) with an error (FP not installed). CMOS shows "coprocessor installed". I have switched from PCDOS3.1 to 3.3 in the last six months and added a JDR-MCT secondary floppy controller with 1.44MB bios add-on - could either one of those changes have screwed up the INT2 handling? I know, I know.. pull them out, boot up with 3.1 and see. BTW, the board was from Golden State Computers and "packaged" by the now defunct Computer Components Corp out of RTP, NC. Hints? Anyone heard of a coprocessor that worked fine but couldn't be detected by some programs? Obviously different folks look for it in different ways... -- * Charles Lord ..!decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!cjl Usenet (old) * * Cary, NC cjl@ecsvax.UUCP Usenet (new) * * #include <std.disclamers> cjl@ecsvax.BITNET Bitnet * * #include <cutsey.quote> cjl@ecsvax.uncecs.edu Internet *
brim@cbmvax.commodore.com (Mike Brim - Product Assurance) (03/20/91)
In article <1991Mar18.165314.5994@uncecs.edu> cjl@uncecs.edu (Charles J. Lord) writes: > > I have two 8Mhz AT 'clones' that both have a strange problem. > Both have had '287s in them from the beginning (3-4 years), but > recently Norton's SI and a few programs can't detect the coprocessor. > It passes the 87test on wuarchive, runs autosketch, QB87, etc but > won't run a commercial program from Data Translation (compiled in > God knows what) with an error (FP not installed). CMOS shows > "coprocessor installed". I have switched from PCDOS3.1 to 3.3 in > the last six months and added a JDR-MCT secondary floppy controller > with 1.44MB bios add-on - could either one of those changes have screwed > up the INT2 handling? It may be possible that the equipment byte 14 in the CMOS data area is set incorrectly. One of the bits tell if a math-co is present or not and some programs look here. I have seen this happen on a few systems that had a Phoenix BIOS. Also located in that byte is the number of floppies installed, so the addition of the floppy cont. MAY have changed both bits. Equipment Byte 14H Bit 7 - bit 6 Indicates the # of diskette drives installed: 00 1 drive 01 2 drives 10 reserved 11 reserved Bit 5 - bit 4 Primary display 00 EGA/VGA 01 40 column 10 80 column 11 Mono Bit 3 - bit 2 Not used Bit 1 Math-co presence bit: 0 math-co not installed 1 math-co installed Bit 0 Diskette drive presence bit: 0 diskette drive not installed 1 diskette drive installed Hope this helps. -- ******************************************************************************** Disclaimer: I don't speak for my company or myself. Mike Brim | Commodore Electronics Limited PC Analyst - System Evaluation Group | West Chester, PA 19380 Product Assurance | InterNet: brim@cbmvax.commodore.com ********************************************************************************