Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:53623 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:149 comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer:2251
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!samsung!munnari.oz.au!bruce!alanf
From: alanf@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (Alan Grant Finlay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer
Subject: Re: KILLER PROBLEM from HELL... *PLEASE* help!!
Message-ID: <2606@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU>
Date: 5 Jul 90 14:53:58 GMT
References: <90185.162114JCR108@psuvm.psu.edu>
Organization: Monash Uni. Computer Science, Australia
Lines: 27

In article <90185.162114JCR108@psuvm.psu.edu>, JCR108@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
> Hi all, I've got quite a problem here, and I hope you can help.  I have an
> Epson Equity II+ with a 20 meg hard drive, and 2 floppies.  What has happened
> is this:  I was attempting to install 4DOS on my system.  I put all the 4DOS
> files in a separate directory (\4DOS), then added the SHELL=c:\4dos\4dos.com
> to my config.sys.  I rebooted the system to try it out.  Since the 4dos286
> file was not in the home directory, 4dos.com locked up the system and said
> to reboot the system.  Normally getting out of this would be no problem,
> however, I had installed the PC-Lock Protection System Version 1.2f from
> Johnson Computer Systems a few months back.  This protection system will
> not allow any access to the hard disk EXCEPT by booting from the hard disk.

I suggest you get in touch with Johnson Computer Systems.  If they do not have
a solution then I suggest they change their name to Stuffed Computer Systems.
On the other hand it seems to me that if this protection system is purely
software and you can boot from a floppy then it must be playing around with
the battery backed up system parameter memory used on AT+ machines.  If that's
the case you should be able to use the "boot while holding insert key domn"
method to reset the parameters.  Actually I'm not sure if its the "insert"
key as I have an XT and have never done it (maybe its the "delete key).

If anyone can see how such protection could work on an XT (purely software
without stopping boots from floppy drive A) I would like to know how?

To do this kind of thing properly would require a custom disk controller (ROM)
and if that is the case you just have to change back to a standard controller.
At least if you don't care about recovering whats on the hard disk.