New Star Software Collection/NSS_Collection.iso/3-069 qemm 603/1.ima/QEMM-MAN/APPEND-C.QEM

Text File | 1991-10-07 | 11.1 KB | 216 lines

Appendix C

Creating a Pure Environment

 One of the main reasons for QEMM's existence is to help manage
your memory~dash~so that you can use all of the TSRs, device
drivers, and add-on hardware you want without using so much
conventional memory that your applications programs can no longer
start up.  However, with this power there also may be danger.  That
danger is that, now that your programs can fit into memory
together, there is some conflict between their functions which
cause one or both of them to not work.  This incompatibility might,
in extreme cases, cause your system not to function at all.

This class of problems, (the incompatibility between two or more
elements of your system), is not new.  But now that you have the
ability to use so many pieces of software at once, it may be more
likely to occur. For this reason, you should know how to diagnose
a problem should one happen. Your ability to do this could save you
hours of time on long-distance phone calls trying to get technical
support from one vendor after another.

To diagnose a problem when you have many pieces of software loaded,
you must determine whether one of your programs simply does not
work at all, or whether there is some incompatibility between two
or more of the programs you are using. The technique we suggest for
isolating what is going wrong is to create a "pure" environment for
your program. A pure environment is one in which any non-essential
drivers or resident programs have been removed from your CONFIG.SYS
and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. In difficult cases, where alternate
hardware is available, creating a pure environment can even be
extended to removing non-essential hardware devices or replacing
non-standard ones with devices that are more common and known to be
sound.

Here is a step-by-step procedure for troubleshooting and creating
a pure environment:

~Item~ Determine whether the problem might be something you have
recently changed. If the problem began when you installed something
new into your system, or changed the configuration of one of the
elements of your system, then uninstall the new element or restore
the old configuration for it, and see if the problem goes away.  If
it does, you have already isolated one part of the problem and you
may be able to determine what to do about it.

~Item~ Make a bootable floppy disk.  If you normally boot from your
hard disk, make sure before you make any changes that you have the
means to boot from a floppy disk, and that you will be able to
access and edit CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT on your hard disk,
having booted from a floppy.  If you are not totally familiar with
the operation of the items in your CONFIG.SYS, you could find that
removing an item may make your system unable to boot.  A bootable
floppy enables you to get started again.  Make a dry run to be sure
you can boot from the floppy.  Appendix B provides more insight
into making a boot floppy.


~Item~ Make copies of your current CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT
files.  Use file names other than CONFIG.BAK and AUTOEXEC.BAK, as
these tend to get overwritten by text editors.  These copies will
give you a reference to what you are about to change and provide a
way to get the system back to the state it was in before you
started experimenting.

~Item~ Remove statements from the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files
by putting the word "REM" (without the quotes) and a space on the
lines in each file which load the resident programs or drivers.
This way you still remember the whole statement, but it will not be
used.  If your DOS version is prior to 4.0, the use of REM in the
CONFIG.SYS file will cause an error message to be displayed on boot
which says "Unrecognized command in CONFIG.SYS", but this error
message can be ignored. DOS will bypass the loading of the driver,
which is what you want at this point.

~Item~ Avoid removing statements from either CONFIG.SYS or
AUTOEXEC.BAT that are absolutely needed for your system's basic
functionality. If Hard disk drivers are needed to boot your system,
they should generally not be removed, while RAM disk drivers or
disk caches probably should be removed. It is not necessary to
remove PATH= or PROMPT= statements from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file as
these usually do not cause problems and removing them will simply
make life difficult for you. You should probably be more aggressive
about removing other statements in your AUTOEXEC.BAT with "REM".
Do not assume that any utility is trouble free just because you
have been using it for a long time. Remove it now~dash~you can add
it back and exonerate it later.

~Item~ Now that the environment is "pure", test to see if a problem
still occurs.  If it does, then either your hardware is faulty, or
the program you are testing is fundamentally incompatible with your
hardware. You may need to have your hardware checked out. If it
seems OK, contact the maker of the hardware and software to see if
they are aware of a solution.  If the problem does not occur, then
there must be something in the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT which is
creating the incompatibility.

~Item~ Add back the statements to either CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT
which pertain to the specific area you feel could be the problem by
taking the "REM" off of ONE statement at a time.  For instance, if
you are analyzing or troubleshooting in the memory area, you would
want to enable your memory manager at this point.

~Item~ Retest with this new addition.  If the driver you thought
might be the problem proves not to be, reactivate other resident
programs or drivers ONE AT A TIME, starting with the ones you feel
are most essential to the proper operation of your computer and
test again after rebooting with each new addition.  Be patient and
systematic.  Once the specific item which causes the problem is
isolated, you can perhaps go on to resolve the problem fully by
doing the following:

 Remove the item permanently~dash~in some cases this might be a
little used utility, which was added at some point in the past and
forgotten.  If you are not using it and it is causing a conflict,
perhaps the simple solution is to not load it at all.  Since all
resident software and drivers require some memory in which to
operate, it makes sense to avoid loading them if they are not being
used.

 Check the documentation for the utility or driver~dash~it may
point out areas of conflict which did not previously exist in your
system, but do now. It may specify command line  parameter switches
which may have not been needed previously, but are now. For
example, if the problem seems to be a conflict between a memory
manager and the use of a network or a special video mode on your
graphics card, the problem could be that the memory manager is
mapping memory in the area between 640K and 1024K that is also used
by the network or video card. By determining where the memory
manager is mapping high memory and referring to the documentation
for the network or video card to see what high memory addresses
they use, you can add the correct parameters to tell the memory
manager to exclude the mapping of the areas of conflict, and that
could be enough to resolve the problem.

 Try loading the drivers in a different order~dash~in some cases,
the order in which resident programs or drivers are loaded can be
important.

 Contact the developer of the resident program or driver. If you
are encountering a problem, in many cases you will not be alone. A
problem or conflict that may seem quite difficult to you may be
commonplace to the developers of the program and they will be able
to assist you.

 Contact Quarterdeck Technical Support if the problem seems to
revolve around one of Quarterdeck's products and you are unable to
resolve the problem using the foregoing technique. You should not
feel that these efforts have been in vain.  Be sure to document the
findings of your investigation while they are fresh in your mind.
The information you have gained will be of much use in helping our
personnel to further analyze and hopefully, resolve your problem.

~Subhead~ Contacting Quarterdeck Technical Support

If you are contacting us by mail, fax or via information systems,
please include in your correspondence:

~Item~ The version number and serial number of the software product
or products you are inquiring about.

 ~Item~A printout from Quarterdeck's Manifest, if you have it.  If
you like, you can select "All Manifest" from the "What to Print"
part of Manifest's print menu, and send the entire printout to us.
If you are sending by FAX or want to save paper or connect time by
printing out only specific sections, probably only the following
Manifest screens are necessary for our technical support: System
Overview, CONFIG, AUTOEXEC, and Adapters; First Meg Overview and
Programs; DOS Overview and Drivers.  If you think that there is a
problem with your expanded memory, include the Expanded Overview,
Pages, and Handles screens.  If you think there is a problem with
your QEMM installation, include all of the QEMM screens.  If you
think there is a problem with your DESQview installation, include
both of the DESQview screens.  If you feel you have other important
hardware in the system, or if Manifest's list is in some way
incorrect or incomplete, please include information on this as
well.

 ~Item~If the problem is that you cannot run Manifest at all, then
you cannot, of course, send us a print out from Manifest. Instead,
print out your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, and write down
what hardware (including make and model) and software (including
version) you are using. The "Problem Report Card" included with
your Quarterdeck product will serve as a template for the
information we consider essential.

~Item~ A detailed description of the problem you are encountering.
Please describe EXACTLY what happens, and the exact text of any
error messages that might be encountered. Describe in detail the
results of your troubleshooting efforts using the method described
to create a pure environment as outlined at the beginning of this
Appendix, especially if the problem does not occur in the "pure
environment" but does after using particular drivers.

~Item~ Naturally, give us information on how to respond to you via
mail, fax or one of the other methods we support. See your
Quarterdeck Passport Support booklet for information on the various
avenues for contacting us.

If you are contacting us by telephone:

~Item~ Be at your computer.

~Item~ Please prepare yourself by following the troubleshooting
procedure and collecting the same information you would prepare if
you were mailing your request for support.

~Item~ When you contact our technical support representative, you
need only give your serial number and a brief description of your
hardware, software and the problem you are encountering.  If the
support technician requires additional information, you will be
asked for specific details.  As indicated earlier in the this
section, there are some problems which become very familiar to
technical support and in some cases, only a brief description of
the system and the problem is all that is needed.