Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.apps
Subject: PCTools V7.1 CPBackup dies on HP Vectra, tried all else, Please HELP.
From: G.Moretti@massey.ac.nz (Giovanni Moretti)
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 92 03:07:14 GMT
Organization: Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Keywords: CPBACKUP, PCTools, HP Vectra
X-Reader: NETNEWS/PC Version 2c

Hi 

I'm having a little strife with CPBackup from PCTools V7.1.  I've
tried the local agents here (in New Zealand) unsuccessfully, so after
spending three nights till the early hours of the morning getting
nowhere, I'll turn the problem over to the collective wisdom (and
experience) of the net ... 

 *** it would be nice to reliably get to the second disk of a backup :-)

PROBLEM: CPBACKUP locks up, but the clock (elapsed time) is still
running (details included below).

Several of the hints I've tried (CPBTEST and MODE CO80) can from a post 
by Bill Endter (endter@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov) on Oct 28, 1991 - thanks Bill.


MY HARDWARE:
-----------
  8Mhz AT Hewlett-Packard Vectra (one of the very early ones)  
  PHOENIX BIOS REVISION A.01.05 tailored for HP
  MSDOS 4.01
  PEGA EGA card + IBM EGA Monitor
  640K base memory
  2MB extended memory (I've taken out the HIMEM.SYS - just in case)
  Microsoft Mouse with Genius mouse driver v 9.02
  ~550K Free memory with following configuration:

CONFIG.SYS
    stacks=17,128      (and just in case I tried 40,128 - still failed :-(
    country=61,,c:\dos\country.sys
    buffers=35
    files=40
    lastdrive=J
    shell=c:\dos\command.com /p /e:960

 AND SOMETIMES: (see below on Drive A config)
      drivparm=/d:0 /f:7 /t:80 /s:18 /h:2 /c
      device=\indskbio.sys /d:0    (HP 3.5" disk driver Revision B.01.01)

AUTOEXEC.BAT
  only has environment SET statements plus:
  C:\PCTOOLS\MIRROR c: /TC
  break on
  verify on
  gmouse 1        <-- CPBACKUP fails even if this is commented out.
                      i.e. Keyboard mode, no mouse.


Drive A, which I've just added is a 3.5" drive, which the BIOS doesn't
support (it only knows about 360K and 1.2MB drives) so I'm using the
HP 3.5" TSR called INDSKIO.SYS (like DRIVER.SYS).  This isn't the
cause of the problem as when I take it out (so the drive appears as an
80 track 1.2MB drive), the problems still occur :-(

Drive A works fine, formats and reads and writes OK in either 1.44MB
mode (with DRIVPARM and INDSKIO.SYS) or 1.2MB mode (pretending its a
5.25" HD drive.


CPBACKUP SETUP
==============

      *** CPBACKUP OPTION MENU ***
	BACKUP TYPE  full backup
	REPORT       to file
        COMPRESS     Minimize TIME or NONE (locks up with either)
	VERIFY       when FORMAT
	FORMAT       DOS
        FORMAT       always
        ERROR CORR'  ON
        Save History ON
        TIME DISPLAY ON

    *** CPBACKUP CONFIGURATION ***
	SPEED	      HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW (DOS compat')  
                      Locks up with all of these
	Drive A:      1.44MB (with DRIVPARM + INDSKBIO.SYS
                       or 1.2MB  (using default options as per BIOS)
        EXPRESS MODE   EITHER on or off


SYMPTOMS
========
Every now an again the backup will pause, and after about 10-30
seconds, the Hard disk will reseek several times and then the backup
will continue.  Eventually it just stops (without the multiple
reseeks)...  When this happens, CTRL/ALT/DEL doesn't work - a H/W
reset is necessary (but the elapsed time display is still counting off
the time). 

Subjectively I thought that it failed less often with using the
express display, but it still locked up. 

The only time I've got all the way to the end of one 80 track disk is
when I'm using slow backup (although the FAST Confidence test checks
out OK). 


USING CENTRAL POINT'S "Set CPBTEST=8010 " Diagnostic Line
=========================================================
I set the global environment variable CPBTEST=8010 and it produced the
lines along the bottom of the screen:

   "*---**"
   "Lookahead 2    Pause 0    DMA Overruns 0   Incr 2"

in the high speed mode.  The only thing that ever changed was "Pause"
which (once) seemed to correlate with the number of hard disk reseeks
(after pausing for 10-15 seconds as mentioned above). The one time I
noticed a change it was to "Pause 2". This doesn't always change when the
backup pauses and then carries on.

In the medium speed mode, the "Incr 0" seemed to be the only change.

What does the diagnostic code "8010" mean?  Are there other options?


VIDEO CARD RESET 
================ 

Bill Endter mentioned the video card causing problems, so I turned the
display back into text mode (instead of graphics), and subjectively
(again) it seems to take longer to die, but die it does ...  "MODE
CO80" didn't seem to make any difference.  Why can the video cards
could cause problems? 

HARDWARE RELIABILITY/ Other Software COMPATIBILITY
==================================================

The hardware is extremely reliable and all my other software, eg
FREEMACS, Microemacs, MG (another emacs clone), Turbo Pascal v 4, 5.5
and 6, Windows 3.0, F19 flight simulator and many of the Lucasfilm
games work fine.

The only other program that dies in this abrupt fashion is INDY 500 (a
game) which dies with the message "ERROR WHILE RUNNING INDY" and may
or may not lock up the PC.  Once (just once) the directory manager
from PCTOOLS V7.1 froze as well, but I've used it successfully before
and after that. 

I have DRDOS 6 but I don't want to install it before backing up my hard
disk (preferably onto 1.44MB disks, rather than 360K :-).

Any help would be very very much appreciated.

Thanks
Giovanni
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Giovanni Moretti,  Computer Science Dept.     |Email: G.Moretti@massey.ac.nz 
Massey University Palmerston North,New Zealand|Packet Radio  : ZL2BOI@ZL2TCX
Phone +64 6 356 9099 x8694,  FAX +64 6 3505611| * 7 times down, 8 times up *