From: mo@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Mohit Goyal)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: I need help/advice with OS/2 GA, please.
Date: 13 Apr 92 20:38:59 GMT
Reply-To: mo@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Mohit Goyal)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
Originator: mo@mickey.cc.utexas.edu


 Hello.  I am having many problems with OS/2 GA.  I am looking for any
advice.
 
 First of all, I have a 386-25DX(Intel) w/64k cache.  4 megs of 80ns RAM.
Viewsonic 4 SuperVGA monitor, STB Powergraph w/1 meg dram, USRobotics
2400e, 80 meg Rodime hard drive, IBM Personal Pageprinter 4216, an Amptron
motherboard, and an AMI BIOS dated 4-9-90.  The code on the screen when I
boot up is SINT-1185-040990-KD.  Oh yeah, I have a Lite-On AT 101-key 
keyboard.

 OS/2 installed fine the first time.  I used the FAT filesystem.  System
performance was ok at best, but that's not a problem, I know how to fix
that.
 
 On to the problems.  When OS/2 boots up it does not turn on my Num Lock,
Caps Lock, or Scroll Lock keys.  If I press either of those three keys while
OS/2 is loaded, the keyboard locks up and I can use it again until I reboot.
Also, I hit caps lock in a full screen DOS session and the system hung.  I
couldn't do anything at all.  I had to do a cold boot.  Also, when I load OS/2
I can't hit ESC when I turn on the computer to bypass the memory test.  I can
do this under plain DOS.  Oh yeah, I only have OS/2 on the hard drive, no
other operating system.
 
 Let's see, what else.  Oh yeah, I ran the program CPUSPEED, available from
hobbes.nmsu.edu and my system locked.  I had to reboot.
 When I run the program PMCOMM v1.10 and call the Internet for example, 
every now and then,(it seems random), all the text will start being displayed
diagnolly, I can fix the problem by clearing the screen.  I'm not sure if this
is an OS/2 problem, but my friend who also runs PMCOMM with the same settings
for it and OS/2 has never had this problem.

Take note - every time I reboot from a system hang, OS/2's chkdsk will find
errors in SWAPPER.DAT and fix them.  Hmmm...oh yeah, I can not always shut
down.  Sometimes it will simply display the message 'shutting down system
please wait' and I will for a few *minutes* until all system activity has
seemingly stopped, but if I click on the desktop, I get a menu again.  I
have been able to shut down correctly also.
 
 Finally, I read the readme file and noticed OS/2 supported SVGA for the
exact same card I have, the STB Powergraph, so I thought I'd try it.  I
ran SVGA ON successfully from a DOS full screen, shut down and reboot.
I then ran SVGA Status and it correctly identified my graphics chip.  Anyways,
I am not sure what SVGA support OS/2 2.0 has, but I displayed a 1024X768
w/256colors .gif in a DOS full screen using VPIC, and hit alt-home to make
it a window, and the system had a 'real' crash for the first time, where it
gave me a trap error, and told me to write down a number:
##0160:fff6453f -
000d:a53f 60000, 9084

So I rebooted and decided to see if I could display an 800X600 w/256colors
.gif in a DOS window using VPIC.  It crashed the system again, and produced
the same error(ie it told me to write down the same number).  When I tried
to run the 1024X768 .gif in a window I had PMCOMM loaded but not running,
when I tried to run the 800X600 I had no other programs loaded, and both
times I had no other windows open.

 Anyways, after it crashed the second time for 'real' and I tried to boot
up, it said that it could not load the .dll's and to copy them to my root
directory or one of the directories in my LIBPATH statement in my config.sys
file.  Well, all the .dll's were their, and I didn't feel like copying 10
megs of .dll's to their respective directories, so I just reformatted my
hard drive with DOS 5 and stuck it back on the system.
 
I did not install the WIN-OS2 option since I have no Windows programs and
felt it would be way to slow with only 4 megs.

Anyways, I am back to DOS again.  I guess that what I have is a hardware
compatibility problem.  What bugs me is that I have another friend who is
running his on a system that is almost exactly like mine, except he his
motherboard is not made by Amptron and he has no problems.  I have one
other friend who is running it on an Amptron 386-33w64k cache and it flies
on his system.  He also has 8 megs and a fast video card.  We all have the
same BIOS date, AMI 4-9-90.  

Well, if you have any advice and/or suggestions please mail me or reply
to this newsgroup.  By the way, my two friends who are running OS/2 GA have
legal copies.  I installed one of their copies on my machine to get a feel
for OS/2(I had never used it before) and to get an idea of how much more
memory I need, and any other system improvements. (as it turns out it looks
like I will need a brand new system!)  I will still be buying OS/2 2.0 later
this week when our university store gets it because I want to support OS/2,
and I have seen it run on a nice machine, and it runs well.  Oh well, I'm
off...later.