Epson Equity 386/20 Product ondersteunings bulletin - Pagina 6

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Subject:

Equity 386/20 Patch for Novell NetWare 386

Date:

4/11/90

1 of 1

Page:

This bulletin is to inform you of the solution to a problem that occurs when

running Novell NetWare 386 on the Equity 386/20. Note that the problem only

appears when booting the 386/20 from floppy diskette, which is common

practice to allow

NetWare 386 volume.

When the SERVER program enters 80386 protected mode, it shuts down the

floppy disk motor(s). After shutting down the motor(s), SERVER does not

update the BIOS motor status byte located at 0040:003F. In the motor status

byte, bit 0 = 1 indicates drive 0 (A:) motor is currently on. Bit 1 = 1

indicates drive 1 (6:) motor is currently on.

When SERVER needs to load a file (.NLM, .LAN, or .DSK), it switches back to

real mode to let DOS handle file manipulation. DOS then calls the BIOS to

access the floppy. The BIOS checks the motor status flag, which is on. The

BIOS then attempts to access the floppy while the motor is off. After about

one second,

the

incomplete). Depending on the DOS function in process, DOS may not be

able to recover and complete the function.

In particular, these DOS functions may not recover if they are initiated when

the motor status flag is on, but the drive motor is actually off: Read From

File (function 3Fh) and Find First (function 4Eh). Read From File will fail if the

file is already open, the flag is on and the motor is off. Find First (search

for matching file name) will fail if

name, the flag is on and the motor is off.

The solution for this is a small (301 bytes) patch program called

N386FIX.COM. This patch, when executed prior to running the NetWare 386

SERVER program, will properly set the motor status flag.

The compressed file N386FIX.ZIP may be found on the Epson Product Support

RBBS in the file library PATCH. It is also available from the Epson Forum on

Compuserve. It contains the executable file as well as an explanatory ASCII

text file, N386FIX.DOC. Download with protocol and decompress with any utility

that handles the .ZIP file format.

Product Support Bulletin

entire hard disk drive to be partitioned as a single

the

BIOS returns an error of 80h (timeout) or 40h (seek

the

search string contains a subdirectory

PSB No:

Originator: