From: "Paul O. BARTLETT" 

    Last week I posted a problem I was having with random lockups with
DR-DOS 7.03.  In my original message, which because of size I will not
repeat here, I included my CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and a 'MEM /DEBUG'
map of memory.  Recently I have been ill and have not done a lot of
work on the problem, but I do have a little followup here.  However, if
anyone thinks that it would be better dealt with offline by individual
email, that is fine with me.  I usually check my email at least once a
day.

On Thu, 10 Jun 2004, Michal H. Tyc wrote (excerpted):

> On Tue, 8 Jun 2004 17:29:24 -0400 (EDT), Paul O. BARTLETT wrote:
>
> > On the bootable FAT partition I installed DR-DOS 7.03.  This boots
> > as C:, and the "common" partition is visible as D: to
both DR-DOS and
> > Win98.  When I boot into DR-DOS the first message that comes up
is "Hard
> > disk 2 configuration error," but I presume this is an
artefact of Win98
> > mucking around with things.  The D: partition seems to be fully usable
> > from DR-DOS.
>
> This message does not come from DR-DOS itself. It comes either from
> your boot manager (if it appears before "Starting Caldera DR-DOS...")
> or from one of the device drivers.

    This message appears after "Starting Caldera DR-DOS..." and before
the first message from EMM386.EXE, which is the first thing that loads
in CONFIG.SYS.  The common partition gets IMAGEd by the Norton
Utilities for Windows running when I have booted into Win98.  From
DR-DOS I cannot delete (even after resetting the file attributes)
IMAGE.DAT and IMAGE.IDX in the root of the D: partition, so I presume
that Win does some kind of funny stuff that is disliked by something on
the DR-DOS side of the fence.

> > So far so good.  However......  When I am working in DR-DOS, I get
> > completely unpredictable lockups when I return to the command prompt.
> > Locked up tight.  Ctr-Alt-Del does not work.  I have to press the reset
> > button.  These lockups are completely unpredictable, and I cannot detect
> > any pattern to them at all.  None.
>
> Do these lockups occur only just after exiting NCC, or in other
> situations too?

    The lockups occur entirely randomly, as nearly as I can tell.  I
can be doing just about anything, and when I get back to the command
prompt, the system locks up tight.  I cannot detect any pattern
whatsoever.

>                 BTW, much of the NCC functionality is now available
> through CONFIG.SYS directives (NUMLOCK=OFF etc.) and DOS MODE
> command (keyboard delay/autorepeat etc.)

    That may well be the case.  I haven't explored the capabilities of
DR-DOS's COMMAND.COM to its fullest extent.  My main interest in using
an old NDOS was screen color control.  (I detest white letters on a
black screen, and I like a VGA overscan border around the screen.)
However, someone who uses DOS exclusively in a business context has
recommended ANSIPLUS for various capabilities.  Does anyone else have
any experience with this?

> > I am including below my software configuration.  [trimmed]
>
> It would be a good idea to temporarily remove (rem out) all drivers
> and TSRs and then (if the lockup disappears) enable them one after
> another to see whether there are any confilicts which cause the
> lockups.

    I have taken COUNTRY.SYS more or less permanently out of the
picture.  I live in the USA, so I suppose the defaults are adequate.

    HOWEVER, this afternoon, I took GUEST.EXE, the Iomega ZIPdrive
driver, out of AUTOEXEC.BAT, and for the length of time I was working I
had no lockups.  Then I started GUEST.EXE (it can load from the command
line or AUTOEXEC.BAT), and after some time I had another lockup.  That
might tend to point to that driver, although further work will be
needed to try to point to that conclusively.  I must confess to a
boo-boo.  I started including that driver before I had read all the
documentation that came with it.  I know, I know, RTFM, and all that. :-/
So as I have time available and feel well enough, I will continue working
on it.

> There are also several things in your configuration files which can
> be optimized (less memory occupied etc.), but they are not rather
> less important until your system is stable.

    I would still be interested in your suggestions, even while I am
working on the lockup problem.

> Hope this helps,

    Very much.  I appreciate your consideration.

-- 
Paul Bartlett
bartlett "at" smart "dot" net
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