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- Quarterdeck Technical Note
-
- Patching QEMM.SYS, QRAM.SYS, MFT.EXE, XDV.COM, DV.COM, and
- DVHERC.COM to prevent video confusion on Hercules dual monitor
- systems
-
- Background: Various Quarterdeck programs - QEMM.SYS (QEMM-386)
- dated 1-11-90 or earlier, QRAM.SYS (QRAM) dated 1-11-90 or
- earlier, MFT.EXE (Manifest) dated 1-11-90, XDV.COM and DV.COM
- (DESQview or DESQview 386) dated 3-9-90 or earlier, and
- DVHERC.COM (DESQview or DESQview 386) dated 3-9-90 or earlier -
- make a call to Hercules and Hercules compatible video cards that
- enables the second page of Hercules graphics. The Hercules card
- uses the B800-BFFF area for its second graphics page; this area
- is also used by CGA, EGA, MCGA, and VGA cards for color text
- display. As a result, both the Hercules card and the color card
- on dual monitor systems use the B800-BFFF area, with
- unpredictable video results. The usual symptom is either a
- blanked-out or a garbaged screen on the color monitor shortly
- after the product in question loads. The problem has no
- consequences other than video confusion, and, if the screen
- restores with a CLS or a MODE CO80 command, should not recur
- until a cold boot or a reset. As a result, users who see this
- problem after QEMM.SYS loads may simply wish to put a CLS
- statement at the beginning of their AUTOEXEC.BAT instead of
- patching all of the above programs.
-
- The following procedure, which is intended to prevent this video
- confusion on Hercules dual monitor systems, must be followed for
- each of the above Quarterdeck programs that are in use. We will
- use MFT.EXE as an example in the following procedure, but the
- process should be repeated for QEMM.SYS, QRAM.SYS, XDV.COM,
- DV.COM, and DVHERC.COM as well. (XDV.COM and DV.COM are
- identical; you need only patch one file, then copy the patched
- file on top of the other file.)
-
- -------------------------------------------------
-
- 1) Make a copy of the file in question, as you are about to use
- DOS DEBUG to alter the file.
-
- 2) If the file you are working on is MFT.EXE, rename it, as DOS
- DEBUG behaves differently with .EXE files. You need not rename
- any of the other Quarterdeck programs, as they are not .EXE
- files, but it will do no harm if you do rename them.
-
- REN MFT.EXE MFT.XXX
-
- 3) Go into DEBUG, passing MFT.XXX to it as a parameter.
-
- DEBUG MFT.XXX
-
- If you get a "file not found" message, give the full path names
- to DEBUG and MFT.XXX.
-
- After you hit the Enter key, you should the the DEBUG prompt, which is a
- hyphen.
-
- 4) At the DEBUG prompt, type:
-
- S 100 L F000 B0 3 EE
-
- Hit the Enter key; DEBUG should return a segment address and an
- offset:
-
- xxxx:yyyy
-
- ...or, if you are working on Manifest, two pairs of segment
- addresses and offsets:
-
- xxxx:yyyy
- xxxx:yyyy
-
- 5) At the DEBUG prompt again, use the address and offset that was
- just returned (or, in the case of Manifest, one of the two pairs
- of segment offsets and addresses) to give the DEBUG command:
-
- E xxxx:yyyy 90 90 90
-
- The address that DEBUG returned in step 4 should be used in place
- of the address xxxx:yyyy, which we use as an example. Hit the
- Enter key; the DEBUG prompt should return in a moment.
-
- 6) If the file you are working on is the Manifest file, repeat
- step 5 with the other segment offset and address, so that the
- data at both addresses has been changed.
-
- 7) At the DEBUG prompt, type
-
- W
-
- Hit the Enter key; DEBUG will announce that it is writing a
- certain number of bytes, then it will return the DEBUG prompt.
-
- 8) At the DEBUG prompt, type
-
- Q
-
- Hit the Enter key to exit DEBUG and return to DOS.
-
- 9) If the file you are working on is the Manifest file, rename it
- back to its original name:
-
- REN MFT.XXX MFT.EXE
-
- --------------------------------------------------
-
- If the file you were working on does not perform properly after
- you do this patch, you should restore the copy of the file that
- you made earlier and delete the file that you altered. You may
- then wish to try the above procedure again, in case a mistake was
- made.
-
-
- * * * E N D O F F I L E * * *