From: sandvl@sci.kun.nl (Sander van Leeuwen)
Subject: Oh, nooo....... More Problems.
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 14:43:31 GMT

Hello,

I'm running OS/2 2.0 for two months now, but I have nothing but problems.

My configuration:
486SX-25 motherboard (brand Ultron) (AMI bios dated somewhere in 1992)
8 Mb RAM
125 MB Seagate 1144a HD
1.44 Mb drive 
1.2 Mb drive
ATI VGA Wonder + (512 Kb) + bus mouse
Philips modem (model NMS 1265) 1200/75 bps (not on com1) (IRQ 3)
Genius Scanner model GS4500 (DMA 3)
Ad Lib Gold 1000 music card (IRQ 3, DMA 1 and 3)
1 parallel, 1 serial and 1 game port
Epson LX-800 on LPT1

HD: 1MB Bootmanager
    35 MB HPFS with OS/2 2.0 (primary partition)
    5 MB FAT with MS-DOS 5.0 (primary partition)
    80 MB FAT (logical partition)

PROBLEMS:(these are the most frequently returning problems)
- In (and only in) a dos-window or full screen OS/2 translates random keys with
  -| (not quite, I believe it's ASCII code 176 decimal). This happens almost
  every time I type something. (this problem disappeared after I installed the    CSD)
- When I set the IRQ of my music card on LPT2 (IRQ 7) I cannot print anything
  (I get the message that the printer spooler cannot write to LPT1)
  When I play some music with the programs that came with the Ad Lib card,
  somehow the printer gets jobs to print (150 or so). 
  After I set the IRQ to 3 this problem was almost gone. The problem came back
  once. At that time I was reporting my problems to IBM Helpware in Belgium 
  (nice timing) and tried to print a file with Enhanced Editor. I got the error   message that the active application wasn't responding to system requests.  
  Somehow I succeeded in exiting the editor. But this wasn't the end; I tried to  close the Productivity Folder and suddenly I got the error message that the 
  application Productivity wasn't responding to system requests. After I tried 
  several things to end it, the only thing that was left was pushing the big RED  button.  (I never had this problem again)
- In Lotus 123 release 2.1 the screen turns black when I try to change the
  colunm size. I can exit Lotus normally. (when I run 123 under Desqview under 
  OS/2 this doesn't happen) 
- One time OS/2 crashed while using WordPerfect 5.1. (I had nothing running in 
  the background) I was just typing a letter, when my cursor responded very 
  bad. While scrolling through the letter with the cursorkeys OS/2 crashed.
  This came back once, but instead of crashing OS/2 gave the error message that
  WordPerfect had executed a NPX instruction and closed it. 
- I cannot start CPBackup 7.1 nor PCTools 7.1. I get the message that these 
  programs have executed illegal instructions. 
- Norton's Sysinfo doesn't work like it should. When I start it, it begins 
  reading from drive A and B. (this takes a long time) After a while everything   works fine. 
- Sometimes when a program has crashed in a dos window or full screen, I can't, 
  after this program has been shut down, reopen the dos box. OS/2 gives the
  message that a program in the dos box has executed an illegal instruction,
  before I even see the c>. (this problem goes away after trying to open the dos  box for 5 to 10 times)
- I can crash OS/2 anytime I want. When I add to the following to the autoexec.
  bat of a VDM and try to play some music the system crashes:
   SET GOLD = 388 
   SET GOLDPATH = d:\adlgld;d:\adlgld\drivers
  (the virtual dos machine consists of command.com, io.sys, msdos.sys of MS-DOS)
- The music files for the Gold consist of synthesizer part (.rl2 file) and a 
  sample part (.smp files). Even when I put the .exe files, the .rl2 files and 
  the .smp files in the same directory, the music program (Jukebox Gold) still 
  won't play (or can't find) the sample parts.
- OS/2 is supposed to be a good dos multitasker, but when I play digital music 
  in the background a use WP, the music is terrible and WordPerfect reacts 
  slowly to input from the keyboard. (formatting two disk in the background and
  running WP works great) Desqview however does a great job multitasking these
  two programs and even a 286 isn't too slow to play these music files under DOS
  I know I cannot expect the same speed as a text-based multitasker, but I
  didn't expect OS/2 to be so bad in doing the same thing.
  (have Soundbaster or other music card owners experienced the same lack of
  speed?)
- Sometimes I cannot shutdown normally via the menu. (this happens very rarely)


I've run all these programs on a 386-40 with 5 Mb RAM without any luck.
Some of the problems disappeared (CPbackup, Pctools, Lotus 123, keyboard), but
I have encountered some new ones: Sysinfo sometimes just crashes or has the same
problems a the 486SX has. The new thing is that I cannot remove the program from
memory, so I cannot shut down normally.
I've tried everything with only my video adapter and HD and FDD controller in my
computer. The problems with 123, Cpbackup, Pctools and Sysinfo remain. I cannot 
say that the WP problem has disappeared, because this problem occurs just once
in while.
Installing the CSD (the Golden one) didn't help anything (except the keyboard problem). 

I suspect that my motherboard isn't compatible with OS/2. (the manufacturer says
it is compatible). 
I posted this problem, because IBM hasn't located the problem yet. (they have a
written problem description for two weeks now)

Can anybody help me? Has anyone experienced the same problems? 
I'm thinking of returning to Windows 3.1

(just kidding).

Can anybody tell me whether the 486 motherboards from Mylex, AMI and Micronics
are 100 compatible with OS/2 2.0? 


Thanks in advance,

Sander van Leeuwen
email: sandvl@sci.kun.nl





 
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