Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekcrl!tekgvs!keithe
From: keithe@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: How to start an autobooting program without erasing memory?
Message-ID: <5555@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Date: 12 Jul 89 16:57:41 GMT
References: <899@rex.cs.tulane.edu> <2236@astroatc.UUCP>
Reply-To: keithe@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson)
Distribution: na
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
Lines: 39

In article <2236@astroatc.UUCP> brown@astroatc.UUCP (Vidiot) writes:
|In article <899@rex.cs.tulane.edu> hoang@rex.UUCP (Dzung Hoang) writes:
|<
|<    I have an AT compatible computer and need to run a program that auto-
|<boots from floppy.  The program runs too quickly to be useful.  I have some
|<TSR's that slow the computer to XT speeds, but they won't work if I reboot
|<with CTRL-ALT-DEL.  Is there a way to boot from floppy while keeping TSR's
|<in memory and active?  There must be some address in the BIOS that can be
|<jumped to to accomplish this.
|
|Sorry, can't be done.  COMMAND.COM needs to start up all the programs because
|it sets aside pointers as to what memory is allocated for what.  Everything
|has to start from scratch when booting.  That goes for any computer.

Well, actually, yes, it CAN be done...

I have seen, but not used, programs delivered with EGA (and VGA?) controllers
that permit the display to be set to CGA mode, for example, and then execute
a warm (cool?) reboot, from the floppy disk if present, to allow a CGA-based
game to be played on the CGA-compatible display.

|
|I would try to find out why the program wants to start the computer over again.
|Sounds like copy protection schemes are in the works.
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You got it!  I think he's trying to play a game that thinks it's running on
a 4.77 MHz PC instead of his 10 MHz ATClone.

|I would look into getting
|the program to load from a machine that is already started.  Call the people
|who make it and bitch them out, explaining the problem.

You think that people who copy protect their software care about end users?!!??

|First make sure that
|the program CAN'T be started from a machine already running.

kEITHe