Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!merlin.usc.edu!nunki.usc.edu!jjung
From: jjung@nunki.usc.edu (John Jung)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Laser C and FAST Problems
Message-ID: <5784@merlin.usc.edu>
Date: 15 Oct 89 19:16:59 GMT
Sender: news@merlin.usc.edu
Reply-To: jjung@nunki.usc.edu (John Jung)
Organization: University of $outhern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 38


  I have a question for all you hard drive and Laser C owners out there.

  Recently, I got an ICD FAST 50 meg hard drive. It performs fine, with the
exception that I can't run any software off the floppy (a 1040STfm) unless the
hard drive is on, and I disable the HD (using Shift-Control-Alt). Other people
have told me that the controller is a little flaky for this reason, but I'm not
worrying about it much, because it's only a slight hassle.

  Now for my problem. I have Laser C 2.0 on the hard drive, and I use it fairly
frequently. The problem is, whenever I do hard drive access with Laser C,
occassionally, the mouse will die on me, in that I can't move the mouse
pointer. Sometimes, the mouse's death is only minor, and I can use the keyboard
controls to control the pointer and leave Laser C, and sometimes the death is
major and nothing will move the mouse, in which case I simply have to reboot
the whole system.

  I have noticed that before the mouse dies, a string of characters (same
character in the string, but not the same character all the time) comes out on
the active Laser C window, and then Laser C pops up a dialog saying that I
should hit a key that is recognized by Laser C. Then the mouse dies.

  The mouse dying only happens with Laser C and not with other programs I use,
like Flash! or WordUp!.

  I use Superboot 5.5A along with the other ICD utilities (clock and boot up
program) to boot up my system. Also, I have no busy light (I can't get it to
work), and the hard drive seems to do occassional disk access, but I'm not
sure.

  What I want to know, is : Is this problem with Laser C common with other HD
users? With other FAST users? Or is it that my HD controller is flakier than I
thought, and that's what's causing all the problems (HD has to be on, to run
floppy, random HD access, and Laser C mouse death)? Or do I have an HD virus?

  Please post or E-mail and help you can give.

						John