lark@greylock.tivoli.com (Lar Kaufman) (04/15/91)
Finally, after beaucoup difficulties, I have succeeded in reinstalling Coherent on my 286 system. On the off chance that my experiences are useful to someone, or that someone can tell me what really was the problem... I never successfully installed Coherent 3.0 on my system - probably because of a disk drive controller problem. I got Coherent 3.1 and a new disk drive controller (Western Digital 1003AV) and succeeded in installing Coherent 3.1. I quickly noticed that I could see no cursor with my system, which had an Orchid VGA card; the motherboard is a DFI 286 (12.5 MHz). I shrugged my shoulders, went about configuring the system. I edited l.sys and apparently botched the job, since I could not see the cursor... When I rebooted, single- user mode came up OK, and then on switching to multiuser (which occurs automatically - I could find no way to force Coherent to stay single-user) the system hung with an error... apparently I had deleted the "c" from "console" and I was doomed... Well, I shut things down, and reflected that my wife was doing a lot of stuff with Ventura on the 386, and complaining how slow it was... Obviously I should get her a new 16-bit VGA card for her system to eliminate that bottleneck, and (purely coincidentally) free up her DFI VGA card for use with my system. ... Several weeks pass, and I inherit the DFI VGA card... I install the Orchid card on the DFI 286. I begin reinstalling Coherent. The first disk installs. The second disk fails... I reboot and the system asks for "an installation disk" so I try disk 2 again... and again... no joy. So I continue with disk 3. This appears to install. I continue to disk 4. This disk fails also. Hmmm. They both consistently fail about the same track. I switch the system back to 6MHz (still running no wait states); no good. Maybe my 1.2 meg floppy drive is getting decrepit? I go out and get a new floppy drive, replacing my Mitsubishi with a new TEAC. (I'm reasoning that my new disk controller is pretty good, having been wrung out with DOS diagnostics.) The new drive fails also - even though it has a trendy green LED instead of the traditional red... Hmmm. Fails on a different track, though. During testing this time, results are even worse, - can't even successfully load disk 3. I decide that I'd better not retry disk 1, or I might lose even the ability to boot and continue the installation... Now I'm getting pretty fretful. I order a new set of diskettes from MWC, and just in case, I also get a set of 3.5" disks, figuring that if necessary, I can try using a 1.44 meg drive as my A: drive. When the new disks come, I try them. The 5.25" disks fail just like my old set. I try continuing the installation with the 3.5" drive configured as the A: drive. Immediate failure; I presume that the partial installation expects to see the 5.25" drive as A:, and decide to try other tactics before reformatting the HD and beginning over with the 3.5" set... I start thinking about how I had once successfully loaded Coherent, and decided to go back to the configuration that had worked then. I pull the DFI VGA card, and put the Orchid VGA card back in. Failure occurs in different places (less consistently) now, but I still cannot successfully install the software. Suddenly, it dawns on my that I'm still using the new TEAC floppy drive. I plug in the old Mitsubishi drive. Reboot. It's a go! I install disk 2. I install disk 4. The program stubbornly asks for another installation disk. I give it disk 3; it reads it and completes installation. Bingo! So. I have a successful installation, but still no cursor. (MWC has told me that I can probably get the cursor to work if I diddle around with jumpers on the VGA card, but I cannot make myself do that; I know that it is configured properly for DOS, as I ran applications such as Windows 3.0, Word 5.0, and Ventura Publisher with it...) I suspect I could now switch to the DFI VGA card and be done with it, but I lack trust in the system now. I suspect subtle interrupt conflicts or timing problems, but I don't know where to begin examining things. Would updating the DFI (AMI) BIOS help? Feh. I finally decide to call my brother and offer him a direct exchange of my mono VGA graphics card and monitor for his genuine IBM EGA card and mono monitor. I suspect this will work just fine. As Thoreau said, "simplify, simplify". Query: Has anyone else succeeded in installing Coherent on a DFI 286? If so, what video card are you using? -lar Lar Kaufman I would feel more optimistic about a bright future (voice) 512-794-9070 for man if he spent less time proving that he can (fax) 512-794-0623 outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness lark@tivoli.com and respecting her seniority. - E.B. White