Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!cbmvax!drysdale
From: drysdale@cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Drysdale)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: AT BridgeCard Troubles
Keywords: AT BridgeCard A2500/30AT
Message-ID: <20974@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 26 Apr 91 19:23:25 GMT
References: <399@sgfb.ssd.ray.com>
Reply-To: drysdale@cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Drysdale)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 55

In article <399@sgfb.ssd.ray.com> prg@sgfb.ssd.ray.com (Paul R. Gosselin) writes:
>
>Hello,
>   A friend at work here without net access has a problem with his
>AT bridgecard and A2500/30 combination. The package was purchased
>just over a year ago under the educational discount, but he
>never needed to do much with the bridgecard til now. 
>   The bridge card is able to perform well with the normal DOS
>shell stuff on the PC side, but when using certain software the
>connection between the bridge card and the Amiga side seems to
>"hang-up" and/or die.
>   Now for the specifics: He has tried the machine in both 68000 and
>68030 mode, with the same results.  The dealer, when he installed it,
>set some jumper on the bridge card for "Color" mode. The documentation
>says he should be able to change to Mono, but again, the connection
>hangs up when he tries to "software-change" to Mono from color. (He
>tried this to see if the software might want only Mono display).
>   The two pieces of software are Lotus 123 and a VI editor he has. The
>author of this particular VI editor isn't doing anything exotic that
>any normal PC couldn't handle. Both VI and Lotus hang at startup. The
>visual appearance is that the cursor is placed at the top left corner
>of the screen, with no further activity.
>   Note: Using the "-o" option on (I think) an older VI would work,
>EXCEPT when VI tried to use the 25th line for status information. This
>too would hang up the connection. He is using system software that
>would have been shipped with the package about one year ago.
>   Any help with the situation would be greatly appreciated as he
>is on travel during the week and would like to be able to bring his
>work at home during the weekends and use the PC side as he uses
>a PC on travel.
>   Thanks, I understand the problem description is a little vague,
>but we have only been able to converse over the telephone since he's
>on travel and his Amiga isn't.  (Note the 2500 has 5 Megs of memory).

it sounds like he's running PCWindow in color mode, and the software is
switching to mono mode.  since the bridgeboard hardware appears to have
two display adapters (CGA and MDA) on board, some software will use mono
for whatever reason.  tell him to start another PCWindow in mono mode,
and see if the output of the programs is on the mono screen instead.  there's
no problem running a color and mono window simulataneously (in fact, some
packages take advantage of that.  lotus, for instance, might display a
graph in the color window while keeping the text in the mono window).
from workbench, click on "PC Mono" to start a monochrome pcwindow.  from
the cli, type "run >nil: sys:pc/pcwindow mono".

>    Paul Gosselin

  --Scotty
-- 
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Scott Drysdale           Software Engineer
Commodore Amiga Inc.     UUCP {allegra|burdvax|rutgers|ihnp4}!cbmvax!drysdale
		         PHONE - yes.
"Have you hugged your hog today?"
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