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Date:	Wed, 24 Jul 2002 11:57:56 PST7
From:	waynec@linkline.com
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	"scoug-help" <scoug-help@scoug.com >
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Boot hang: retransmittal #3 (fwd)

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----------Forwarded message ----------
From: waynec@linkline.com
Subject: Boot hang: retransmittal #3
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 19:42:52 GMT
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Sorry if you've seen this before, I am not seeing some of the emails I sent
via my normal Compuserve CIM being returned from SCOUG, or if they are, the
first part of the note is missing, or in some cases the email is completely
blank. So I am sending this copy via another ISP's email.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

> Header to try to get around the problem of my posts to SCOUG getting the top cut off <
>
>
>
>
> Steven said:
>
> Hardware is always a possibility. However, Wayne has made no mention of
> problems once past the boot hang. This makes me inclined to put hardware
> lowish on the list of potential culprits.

> I still suspect a WarpCenter hang. I inquired about this earlier, but
> don't recall receiving a response.

> Wayne, do you use WarpCenter? If so, are you starting if from config.sys
> or from the Startup Folder?

Yes I do use WarpCenter. I tried moving it to the startup folder awhile, but
that didn't change anything, still got hangs, so I put it back in
config.sys.

I want to revise my prior opinion that it's a hardware problem, I'm having
second thoughts, but only after trashing my system last night and spending
about 6 hours getting it functional again.

I don't have ready access to spare parts, I'm just a home computer user.
Last night I thought I'd try the plain VGA drivers (too late at night, I
wasn't thinking straight, because that doesn't do a thing about the Matrox
hardware). Anyway, I haven't fooled with the system in quite awhile and I
really got myself into trouble. In short, I tried to use the bootup choices
screen to get booted with VGA drivers, then got a desktop that was
completely unusable because any program I launched ended up in a window that
was off the top of the screen, so I couldn't see part of it and I couldn't
reach the top of the window to click on it to resize or move it to where I
could see it. Then I tried choosing the maintenance desktop (or whatever
it's called) at a bootup, thinking I'd go back to the Matrox drivers (turns
out you can't install the Matrox drivers that way, but I didn't remember
that) and I couldn't satisfy the request for a driver disk with a
configuration? (xxxx.ddp) file on it. Then on reboot, I found I'd lost all
my prior desktop archives (no longer on the bootup choices screen), then the
Matrox-supplied install program balked, saying that OS2KRNL was the wrong
version, etc, etc, etc. It just kept on snowballing!!!

No hangs occurred in multiple reboots while I was doing all this

Anyway, I finally got the Matrox drivers set up by running dspinstal program
instead of the Matrox install program, then reapplied fixpack 15, then found
some of my recent copies of OS2.ini and OS2SYS.ini and a config.sys and
substituted them. After manually rebuilding warpcenter and toolbar, I'm
pretty much back where I was... a useable desktop and intrmittant boot
hangs. So, I may have re-introduced the hang when I restored the ini files,
or I was just lucky while not using them.

However, on thinking about it, it's not really a "hang" per se, "hang" is a
misnomer..... because when I have the "blue screen hang" (which BTW is in
1280x1024 mode) I can:

- ctrl-alt-del to reboot (BTW, I was wrong when I stated that chkdsk would
run if you did this when the desktop is up)

- ctrl-alt-W to bring up Watchcat, which displays processor usage

- use the "print screen" key to print the output of Watchcat on my 4029
laser (or a big black square if I do that with only the blue screen)

- ctrl-esc which brings up a small window listing running programs (but the
window is empty)

In other words, everything works, the operating system is there, there just
is no desktop and therefore no way to use the mouse or keyboard to launch a
program (except those special keyboard-activated functions I listed above);
sometimes the cursor is the hourglass wait symbol, sometimes just the cursor
arrow.

The display seems fine, which is why I'm revising my opinion back to
software, not hardware, as the problem.

Someone mentioned a possible problem with AIC7870.ADD, so I'll try to find
the latest version, but the problem description doesn't match my issues.

Wayne

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