Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!shelby!agate!headcrash.Berkeley.EDU!magid
From: magid@headcrash.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Magid)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Wierd floppy error of a different sort
Message-ID: <1991Mar3.234521.28428@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 3 Mar 91 23:45:21 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator)
Organization: ucb
Lines: 32


	I have seen various people complain about floppy problems but I have not
seen anyone mention the one that I am experiencing.  Dos prog can only access 
the drive when they are in full screen mode.  When they are in a window the
program will try to access the disk, but after quite a while it gets timed out.
This problem only occurs with dos progs, windows progs do not have a problem.

There are several possible causes:
	1:  I am using the LastByte dos extender that loads all tsrs and
		drivers into high memory.
	2:  I may have a lousy floppy drive card
	3:  I may have a lousy BIOS,  it is AMI bios for the sx, date 04/30/89
	4:  I am using fdread which extends the length of my 1.2 meg disks
		to 1.4 megs.

I do not think it is number 1 because I have didled with the switch in the 
system.ini file that prevents the floppy drive from using high mem to no avail.
I am highly suspicious of my bios and I have a sneaky feeling that that is what 
is causing all my hassles.

Any help will be appreciated.


Thanks in advance.

Paul

PS:  Here is another wierd one.  I have a program group that works fine in 
	enhanced mode, but if I ever have to enter real mode (rarely) I get
	an error message to the effect that it cannot open the group and it 
	presents the name as a couple of wierd characters; and when I do
	get control of the program manager the group is nowhere to be found.