From news@piglet.cc.uic.edu Fri Nov 1 11:01:55 1996 Received: from MIT.EDU (PACIFIC-CARRIER-ANNEX.MIT.EDU [18.69.0.28]) by bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU (8.7.6/2.3JIK) with SMTP id LAA02717; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 11:01:54 -0500 Received: from relay4.UU.NET by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA23612; Fri, 1 Nov 96 10:59:52 EST Received: from piglet.cc.uic.edu by relay4.UU.NET with ESMTP (peer crosschecked as: PIGLET.CC.UIC.EDU [128.248.100.54]) id QQbnyt16949; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 10:59:37 -0500 (EST) Received: (from news@localhost) by piglet.cc.uic.edu (8.7.5/8.7.5) id JAA26126; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:16 -0600 To: alt-answers@uunet.uu.net Path: usenet From: tbrann1@uic.edu (Timothy S. Brannan) Newsgroups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 FAQ Part 3 of 3 Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 15:57:27 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago Lines: 515 Distribution: World Message-Id: <55d6mo$1so2@piglet.cc.uic.edu> Nntp-Posting-Host: d027.ed.uic.edu X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 From: tbrann1@uic.edu (Timothy S. Brannan) Followup-To: tbrann1@uic.edu (Timothy S. Brannan) Newsgroups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 FAQ Part 3 of 3 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Summary: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 FAQ Keywords: FAQ Archive-name: pc-hardware-faq/gateway2000/part3 Last-modified: November 1, 1996 Last-Posted: October 1, 1996 Next-Posting: December 1, 1996 Posting-Frequency: the first of every month ========================================================================= alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Section 3: Software Information 3.1) Windows Questions _ 3.1.1) Do Gateway systems work with Windows NT? _ 3.1.2) Why does the Windows 95 installation abort on the second _ 3.1.3) Any Windows 95 tips? _ 3.1.4) Why can't I install Windows for Workgroups with ATI driv _ 3.1.5) How can I enable the 32 bit features of hard drives? _ 3.1.6) How can I network my Gateways through Windows? 3.2) Other Operating Systems _ 3.2.1) OS/2 _ 3.2.1.1) How do I install the CD-ROM version of OS/2? _ 3.2.1.2) Where can I get help installing OS/2 on a Gateway Handbook _ 3.2.1.3) Where can I find more OS/2 information? _ 3.2.2) Do Gateway systems work with Linux? How about other UNIX 3.3) Internet Software Questions _ 3.3.1) Where can I download browsers for the World Wide Web? _ 3.3.2) Where can I find good shareware? _ 3.3.3) Where can I find technical support? 3.4) General Software Questions _ 3.4.1) Why doesn't Borland's Turbo Debugger work right? _ 3.4.2) What is the hidden file "quality.com" for? _ 3.4.3) Why do I get a GPF at MACX.DRV? _ 3.4.4) Why doesn't MYST work? Section 3: Software Questions 3.1) Windows Questions 3.1.1) Do Gateway systems work with Windows NT? I can definitely state that Gateway systems work with Windows NT -- I have one running NT here at work. [Tod Pike speaking.] The only problem is that the Windows NT installer wants to have a SCSI-based CD-ROM drive to install from, and the internal (Sony or LMSI) drives are not supported. If you have a drive run from the SoundBlaster board, you can get a driver from Microsoft via FTP or HTTP. I have received reports that the current version of the SoundBlaster drivers for Windows NT do not work correctly. According to information posted on the NT news groups, a new version is expected soon. I will update the FAQ information when I hear more news. Drivers for the Mitsumi CD-ROM drive are available on the Gateway BBS system in the file MITSU.EXE. These drivers are *not* supported by Gateway, but they do work and should allow you to use the Mitsumi CD-ROM under NT. I have also put the mitsu.exe file at ftp.sei.cmu.edu. I would like to solicit more information about available drivers for NT on Gateway hardware. 3.1.2) Why does the Windows 95 installation abort on the second diskette? Because you have a virus on your machine and it is trying to install itself on the second diskette which is written to by the Windows 95 setup program in order to store your registration information. The diskette has a unique high-density format. You need to replace the diskette which will no longer work and to get rid of the virus. If you want to keep the virus, when you get your new diskettes, flip the write-protect tab on the diskettes. There will be a warning, but the Windows 95 setup program should finish with no problem. For more see this FAQ. 3.1.3) Any Windows 95 tips? _Just as with Windows for Workgroups, you need to switch over to the plain VGA driver from the ATI when upgrading from Windows. _Sometimes when installing Windows 95 it may not recognize the CMS tape backup unit. Either select "Redetect Tape Drive" in the options of Microsoft Backup OR download the Colorado patch from HP, at ftp://col.hp.com. _Programs that had been in autoexec.bat that are needed only for DOS (such as mouse drivers and real mode CD-ROM drivers) can be moved to the DOSSTART.BAT file in the C:\WINDOWS directory. If it is not there, create one. Windows 95 may still need some real mode drivers, depending on the situations. _MS Office 95 comes with new proofing tools. However, it does not delete the old ones in the C:\windows\msapps directory, nor does it remove the embedding features from the system.ini file. You can do so manually if you need the space. More Windows 95 tips can be found at, _The BEST source of information is from Bill himself. Check out Microsoft's page. _Microsoft also has a list of Windows 95 compatible software. Once again, thanks to Dave Grabowski. _An upgrade to HyperTerminal for Windows95 is availble from Hilgrave, http://www.hilgraeve.com. _My Windows95 Tips page,http://www2.uic.edu/~tbrann1/Gateway2000/wintips.html. _See Bob Cerelli's Win95 Page, http://www.halcyon.com/cerelli. _Get a Win95 tip-of-day from http://www.tipworld.com/wintip.html. _Don't like Windows 95, but not sure why? Go here to find out: http://www.creativelement.com/win95ann/ 3.1.4) Why can't I install Windows for Workgroups with ATI drivers? Several people have reported that when you install Windows for Workgroups over Windows 3.1, you need to be running a plain VGA driver prior to upgrading. If you are running one of the ATI drivers, you will need to switch to regular VGA (using the Windows setup program) before doing the WfWG installation. 3.1.5) How can I enable the 32 bit features of hard drives? The following is a repost of a message sent by Pat Thornburg of Gateway: "There have been many questions about the 32-bit features in Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and enabling them with systems having 540MB or larger drives. The features can be enabled in different ways in most systems, though some setups do require a loss of drive space to use them. With all of the features, make sure you have the following line in the Config.sys file: device=c:\windows\ifshlp.sys "The systems which can use the full drive size and the features have Logical Block Addressing (LBA) settings in their BIOS'. Currently, only those systems with the PCI buses, Pentium and P486 systems, have these LBA settings. All other systems have to lose some hard drive space to use the features BIOSIDE LIMITATION ------------------------------------------------------- Max Sectors/Track 63 255 63 Max Number of Heads 255 16 16 Max Number of Cylinders 1024 65536 1024 ------------------------------------------------------ Maximum Capacity 8.4G 136.9G 528M "Does this mean that you won't have problems with the features if you have LBA settings? Not quite true. Drivers for the 32-bit features were originally developed for the smaller driv When you try to enable the 32-bit Disk Access feature, you wil get a WDCTRL error. What can be done then? "Western Digital has written an updated Fast Disk driver which allows 32-bit Disk Access with the larger drives and LBA translations. Gateway does have a BETA version of this file available on its BBS. Western Digital does have two released versions of the file. You can also upload the drivers from Western Digitals WWW site at http://www.wdc.com. "If you have the P486 systems, you may have problems as well w the 32-bit Disk Access feature. This is because the driver fo the PCI interface uses the same software interrupt the Windows Fast Disk driver uses as well. You can remark out the PCI dri in the Config.sys file or not use 32-bit Disk Access. At this time, there is no other option. "If you have the NEC IDE CD drive in your system and it is installed on the same controller, you cannot enable 32-bit Dis Access. This is because the file structures for the CD and ha drives are different and the Fast Disk driver won't recognize the CD file structure. "If you have a Pentium system with two controllers, make sure have the most updated CD drivers and connect the CD to the ISA controller and leave the hard drive connected to the PCI controller. You do have to change the CD driver line to show movement from the primary to the secondary controller. With t setup, you can enable 32-bit Disk Access. "What do you do if you don't have a system which has the LBA settings in the BIOS? You have to lose some of the hard drive space to set the drive to the parameters the operating system work with. Here are the steps to follow: 1) Backup all of the information on your hard drive. 2) You have to delete the original partition by typing FD and using STEP 3 from the main menu to delete all partitions. 3) Get into the BIOS on booting and go to the hard drive setup. 4) Change the hard drive from Auto Config to User Defined use the following parameters: Cylinders - 1023 Heads - 16 Sectors -63 5) Save these settings and boot onto the first DOS disk. Press F3 twice to exit the setup program. 6) Type FDISK to repartition the drive to the new paramet Create it with the new settings. 7) When this is done, press Escape to reboot the system a load DOS on it. Have the software format the drive fo you automatically. 8) When the format is complete, reload your backup softwa then restore your system. 9) Before going into Windows, make sure this line is in t Config.sys file: device=c:\windows\ifshlp.sys "You should now be able to enable both the 32-bit file and dis accesses. "The 32-bit File Access feature has some incompatibilities as well. It won't work with some disk compression programs like Stacker 4.0 and DOS 6.0 DoubleSpace. It will work with DOS 6. DoubleSpace. Just remember you may have problems with it on compressed drives. "Other problems can be found with trying to use the Windows MS Undelete program. Since the 32-bit File Access changes the file reads, you cannot use this program to recover files. If you delete a file, you cannot get it back. "What benefits does 32-bit disk access provide? There are a couple of benefits. If you are running DOS based applications through Windows you will notice a slight performance increase. This may not be as much of an increase as actually running you DOS based application in DOS. "The largest benefit will be for those people running multiple Windows applications concurrently. 32-bit disk speeds up the paging to and from your swapfile, as well as to any file accessed on the hard drive while in enhanced mode. If you only run 2 or 3 applications at a time you may not notice any difference in switching since your background applications wil be in memory and will not have been swapped to your swapfile. "But, if you do have a lot of applications running at the same time you will be able to switch from your current application to a background application faster if you have 32-bit disk access. The program will not run any faster, but you can switc to it faster. Performance is improved only for those who must do a lot of switching between multiple applications. "What benefit does 32-bit file access provide? Basically, thi feature tries to keep all of the calls for files from the hard drive in 32-bit protected mode which allows faster processing. This is the VFAT driver. The VCACHE driver replaces the SmartDrive disk caching scheme in Windows and allows faster caching routines for files." Those with the JX30G motherboards (not the JX30), can get an updated BIOS from Gateway that will support the larger drives: ftp://ftp.gw2k.com/pub/hardware_support/bios/486/desktop/jx3012.exe (Thanks to Jarrod Smith!) 3.1.6) How can I network my Gateways through Windows? The best place to look is Dave Grabowski's beta Networking Windows Page http://hertz.njit.edu/~dcg5662. 3.2) Other Operating Systems 3.2.1)OS/2? First of all, Gateway 2000 does *not* officially support OS/2. This is stated explicitly in several manuals. Don't bother calling Gateway with a problem if you are running OS/2! That said, here is how to install it: 3.2.1.1) How can I install the CD-ROM version of OS/2? From a post made by Charlie Collins on comp.os.os2.setup: _"I have a Gateway 486-66 with a Sony CDU-31A CD-ROM drive, so I collected the CD-ROM edition of OS/2 and went to install it. Unfortunately that drive is not supported intrinsically. In order to install OS/2, then, I had to: 1.collect a device driver from an ftp archive (I have forgotten which one; the one called hobbes is supposed to have the sonyb31a.zip file as well) 2.make a copy of installation diskette #1 (using the DOS command for copying disks; transferring files does not work, the whole disk must be copied) 3.copy the driver onto the disk (unzip the *.zip file, then put the *.add file onto the disk) 4.and add the line "BASEDEV=SONYB31A.ADD" to the config.sys file on the new diskette #1. _"Once this was done OS/2 installed itself just fine, but since the CD-ROM drive was not recognized by the operating system the support files were not copied into the C:\OS2 directory automatically. In order to have the operating system recognize the fact that a CD-ROM did exist, then, I had to copy the support files from installation diskette #1 by hand. The three files that are necessary are: the driver: _sonyb31a.add (this was copied, but check anyway; I had to move it into the C:\OS2 directory) _cdfs.ifs (support for the cd file system) _os2cdrom.dmd (instructs OS2 to look for a CD-ROM drive?) _"Once these are in the C:\OS2 directory, config.sys must be told to make use of them. Make sure that the lines _IFS=C:\OS2\CDFS.IFS /Q _DEVICE=C:\OS2\OS2CDROM.DMD /Q _BASEDEV=SONYB31A.ADD _are in config.sys. The /Q stops the OS from writing all kinds of stuff on the screen. _"If you install OS/2 onto some drive other than C you should substitute the appropriate drive letter, of course, and if you have a CD-ROM drive other than the Sony CDU-31A then you should substitute the appropriate device driver. Otherwise this process should be the same." Also, OS/2 drivers for the Mitsumi CD-ROM drive are available on the Gateway 2000 BBS system as MITFIX.EXE. They can also be found at ftp.sei.cmu.edu. 3.2.1.2) Where can I get help installing OS/2 on a Gateway Handbook? http://pccm46.anes.upmc.edu/handbook.html will help you get PCMCIA support enabled for a Gateway Handbook. (Thanks to Joseph J. Quinlan!) 3.2.1.3) Where can I find more OS/2 information? _IBM's personal software site for OS/2 and PC-DOS, http://ps.software.ibm.com. _See what the experts say at Team OS/2, http://www.team0s2.org. 3.2.2) Do Gateway systems work with Linux? How about other UNIX systems? I have received several reports that Linux works very well on Gateway 2000 systems, as long as the video board is properly supported. The ATI Graphics Ultra Pro (and most other ATI boards) are supported and work under Linux. The Diamond boards are now fully supported by XFree86. However, the Matrox cards are not supported by XFree86 although there are 3rd party X servers (about $100-$200) with Matrox support. For more information about running Linux on a Gateway system, you can read the comp.os.linux.help news group. A FAQ is also available for this group. And there is a Linux hardware compatibility FAQ at: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO Other people have had success running NetBSD 0.9 on DX2-66V systems. More information about all of the *BSD systema is available from the news groups comp.os.386bsd.{announce,bugs,development,help,misc}. _Links to more Unix information, http://www2.uic.edu/~tbrann1/Gateway2000/unix.html. (Thanks to Mike Long for the NetBSD information!) (Thanks to Jesse Bennett for the Linux update!) (Thanks belatedly to Frits Daalmans!) 3.4) Internet Software Questions 3.3.1) Where can I download browsers for the World Wide Web? _Netscape Navigator, http://home.netscape.com/comprod/upgrades/index.html. _Microsoft Internet Explorer, the new kid on the block, http://www.microsoft.com/ie/msie.htm. Best for Win95. _NCSA Mosaic, http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/NCSAMosaicHome.html the elder statesman among browsers. _Get the latest virus scanning program from McAfee http://www.mcafee.com. 3.3.2) Where can I find good shareware? These have to be the best pages for shareware... _WinSite, formerlly the Windows archives at CICA at Indiana Univeristy, http://www.winsite.com. _Windows95.com, http://www.windows95.com. _Cybersite, http://www.rt66.com/~cbc/win95. _Shareware.Com, http://shareware.com. _ByteThis Shareware, http://www.bytethis.net/download. _CSUSM's Windows Shareware site, http://coyote.csusm.edu/cwis/winworld/winworld.html. _Need a driver not found above? Go to Frank's Driver Page, http://windows.rust.net. 3.3.3) Where can I find technical support? _Netscape Technical Support, http://www.netscape.com/assist/support/index.html. _Forte' (Free Agent ) Technical Support, http://www.forteinc.com/forte/agent/support1.htm. _Qualcomm (Eudora) Technical Support, http://www.qualcomm.com/ProdTech/quest/tech.html. _Trumpet Technical Support, http://www.trumpet.com.au/support.htm. _Director Viewer for Mosaic, http://www.portal.com/~dwalker/davehome.html. _Consummate Winsock App List, http://cwsapps.texas.net/. 3.4) General Software Questions 3.4.1) Why doesn't Borland's Turbo Debugger work right? People have reported problems in running Borland's Turbo Debugger (from C or C++ or any of the language packages). They get stack failures or GPF (general protection fault) failures when running. A fix for this is available. You can get the fix from Borland directly, either by calling and having them send you a disk, or by calling their BBS: _Borland ............... BBS ............... 408-439-9096 _Borland ............... Sales ............. 800-331-0877 _Borland ............... T/S ............... 408-438-5300 _Borland ............... T/S ............... 800-252-5547 If you have access to the Internet, you can get the fixes at ftp.sei.cmu.edu. Unpack this file into a new directory. You should now go to the Borland bin directory and look for a file called "tdw.ini". You should rename this to "tdw.xxx". Now copy "svga.dll" from the directory you unpacked the patch into to the Borland bin directory. Now go to your windows directory and edit tdw.ini. You should now set the VideoDLL variable to point to the DLL file you should use. A line like this should work: VideoDLL=C:\BORLANDC\BIN\SVGA.DLL Save the file and exit the editor. TDW should now work correctly. More instructions are included in the patch file. If you are having problems with the debugger causing your monitor to change video modes all the time, a second patch is available which will cause the Borland debugger to pop up a window instead of changing modes. This second patch is available from ftp.sei.cmu.edu. Unzip this file, and check the README. You basically want to copy the files "tdwgui.dll" and "cnfg.exe" into your Borland BIN directory (C:\BORLANDC\BIN for example) and then edit your TDW.INI file to use: VideoDLL=C:\BORLANDC\BIN\TDWGUI.DLL Now, when you start up TDW, you should get a window on the screen with the debug information in it. You can run "cnfg.exe" under windows to set any options you need. (Thanks to Roland King!) If this doesn't help, try removing your mouse driver out of AUTOEXEC.BAT. There is apparently a conflict the Microsoft Mouse driver version 9.01 and some version of Borland's DOS debugger. (Thanks to Seth Tisue for this hint!) 3.4.2) What is the hidden file "quality.com" for? According to Gateway 2000, this is a program used by their quality assurance (testing) team during the system set up and burn in. If you don't need the space, you should leave it there, although it can be safely removed (and you should edit your autoexec.bat to remove the call to it). Quality.com updates the file "uptime.dat" (also a hidden file) at frequent intervals. If you remove quality.com, you can remove uptime.dat also! 3.4.3) Why do I get a GPF at MACX.DRV? This problem occurs when you run Quattro Pro for Windows v. 5 the *second* time -- and start the interactive tutor. It also occurs when you use the Gateway CDROM Media browser (which comes with the Gateway Sampler) to access files on any other drive. The problem is the ATI-MACH64 drivers v.1.01 AND v.1.3. The problem goes away if you switch to plain vanilla VGA drivers in Windows Setup. ATI is aware of the problem and actually said they were sorry and hoped that it would be fixed in the next version of the drivers. It was probably missed in testing because you have to open QPW twice. (This hint is from Marily Shea - Thanks!) 3.4.4) Why doesn't MYST work? Troubleshooting for MYST: * Make sure that you are using the most current drivers available for your video card, sound card, and DOS utility MSCDEX.SYS. At this time there is a 95% success rate on running the program successfully after ensuring all drivers have been updated. * Make sure that you do not have any TSR's running. Open up your task list by pressing the Control and Escape keys and everything except for Program Manager before running MYST. * You may want to give this a try although you may not have a Video 7 video card.... Go to the QuickTime init file and change the "Optimize" selection from "hardware" to "driver" this will resolve screen split problems. To do this go int the QTW.INI file and you will see a line that says OPTIMIZE=HARDWARE. Please change the hardware to say OPTIMIZE=DRIVER. This may slow down your system. * Sound Blaster 16 drivers: The presence of SB16 drivers on disk was intended for the convenience of the MYST customer, and presently they are th most current version provided by Creative Labs. Please note: Do not install these drivers unless you have SoundBlaster 16CSP (not the ASP) card. * Error 10200 Initializing Timer Manager: This error message happens during installation. This error will result from a problem with Windows. This is a known issue by Microsoft and requires Windows to be reinstalled in order to run successfully. Unfortunately, there is no alternate solution. * Error 10315 Initializing File Manager: Please make sure that all of your hard disk drives have unique DOS volume labels. There are two methods for checkin and changing the volume label of hard disk. From DOS at the C: drive, type CD\ [hit enter]. To now chec the volume label of a disk & type VOL [hit enter]. The volu label will appear on the screen. To change the volume label, type LABEL [hit enter]. You may use any name you would like as long as the name does not exceed 11 characters in length. * Shadow of KRNL386.EXE error: Another error during installation. The error seems to have various different wordings. Please review the MYST README file on the MYST disk which states that the problem is in t drivers for the CORELSCSI driver. An update to these driver from Corel corrects the problem. Note: If you are sure you have the updated version, you ma want to try the solution for the following GPF in module KRNL.EXE below. * Application has caused a General Protection Fault in module KRNL.EXE: To correct this problem, you will need to edit your CONFIG. file and add the /U parameter to the end of the line that h SMARTDRV.EXE & restart your system. We recommend using the utility EDIT to make these changes. * Fatal Error at Script Line 0: This was also related to the CorelSCSI driver being out of date. Please refer to the above solution and contact Corel an updated driver which corrects the problem. * Maximum Color Depth: MYST currently works with thousands of colors and 256 color drivers. It will not work with a video driver that supports millions of colors. * Swap File Information: For maximum performance in the MYST MPC program, please mak sure that your Windows swap file is no larger than 2 times that of your RAM. For example: If you have 4MEGs of RAM, your Swap File should be no larger than 8,000K. Also, you should use a Permanent Swap File rather than a Temporary Sw File. You can make changes to your current swap file in Windows, going to the Main Group and then to the Control Panel. Sele Enhanced, and then Change. * With an ATI video card, make sure you have the DeviceBitmap=Off in the section of the System.ini which the card uses. For the Mach64 video card, this section is [Mac For the Mach32 video card, this section is [MACH]. Other video cards may or may not have this selection. You will have to check and see. (This is from Pat Thornburg at Gateway - Thanks!) --- Timothy S. Brannan tbrann1@uic.edu Dept. of Educational Psychology College of Education University of Illinois at Chicago Listowner Educational Psychology Ph.D. List, EdPsych@Listserv.uic.edu http://icarus.uic.edu/~tbrann1/index.html -- College of Education, http://www2.uic.edu/depts/educ/oss/ossofec.html Gateway2000 Faq Page, http://icarus.uic.edu/~tbrann1/gateway.html