M100CO.THD --- Copyright 1988 by Phil Wheeler An original compilation of Compuserve Model 100 Forum messages for use by Forum members only. M100CO.EXE (DL9) is an IBM-PC program which makes the IBM and compatible computers emulate a Tandy portable disk drive (TDD). This makes it possible to archive Model 100/102/200 programs on the PC disk by using a file manager on the laptop and a null modem cable to connect the machines via their serial ports. These messages relate to difficulties in using M100CO with certain Model 100 software (Powr-DOS) and solutions to the problems. **Updated: 4/23/88** Message range: 166720 to 167989 Dates: 3/29/88 to 4/23/88 Sb: #M100COM Fm: Len Tucker 71555,1002 To: Al Pound 75715,1077 There is a patch you can make to POWR-DISK that would let you run at 9600 baud. In the version that I have (1.2 I think) the UART setup string is located at the program start plus 441 bytes. Normally this would be 60850 + 441 = 61291. If you do a peek at that location you should find a 57 or the ASCII code for '9'. Simply poke a 56 in that location and your POWR-DISK is setup for 9600 baud. If you then do a LFILES command you should be all set to communicate at the slower baud rate. Fm: Al Pound 75715,1077 To: Len Tucker 71555,1002 Denny Thomas helped me find the commands for Powr-DOS. In case you need them, they are: LFILES S 9600 LFILES S 19200 I've imbedded these commands in DMENU for TDD access and MENUJR for M100COM use. I have a data switch allowing me to select between connecting my M100 to the TDD or the T1K. I've tried backing up my TDD disks to the T1K using COPY.BA which is a disk backup utility that came with Powr-DOS. Hasn't worked. Everything was set up for 9600 and the first set of files got transferred but the second set generated a Communications error. It appears to me that the problem may be related to part of a file being saved with the first set and the rest of the file being transferred with the second set and appended. It could be that what I'm trying to do is not technically possible without program changes but I've experienced another problem which may be related. Occasionally, the transfer stops acting like everybody waiting on everybody else. F10 exits M100COM but "BREAK" is needed on the M100. This stoppage is not a big deal since I can restart the programs but being able to back up a TDD disk to the T1K by flipping the data switch and hitting would be real convenient. Any comments, questions or suggestions? Fm: Len Tucker 71555,1002 To: Al Pound 75715,1077 Most of the problems that can arise are because of the PC computer and the amount of DOS overhead required to catch the data stream. If you have any other devices in your system that may be interrupting the serial IO with a lower priority (eg. less than the IRQ 3 or 4) or any background processing going on then it may cause problems. Do you know what your buffers are set to in the config.sys file and how much memory you have? Let me know how your system is configured and I may be able to recreate your setup. I have never tested the program with POWR-DOS, only POWR-DISK and TS-DOS. I do have a copy however and I will install it to see if there is anything different about the way it communicates. Fm: Len Tucker 71555,1002 To: Al Pound 75715,1007 I've tried Powr-Dos without any problem on a plain vanilla PC at 4.77 mhz. I even ran through the COPY.BA program be switching the plug. The problem must be something about your configuration or in the switching device you are using. Can you give me some mor information about them? Have you tried running the program without the switch by manually changing the plug? Let me know what you you find I'd really like to find the source of the problem Fm: Al Pound 75715,1077 To: Len Tucker 71555,1002 Buffers! Buffers, you say. What are buffers? . I'm still operating with the 2 per default. I'll configure 20 and let you know the results. Fm: Al Pound 75715,1077 To: Len Tucker 71555,1002 Configuring BUFFERS=20 improved the operation but the transfer still hung up during the third swap of COPY.BA. Rebooted without GREYNUM, SMWCLOCK S, DESKTEAM (on screen clock), Webster's New World Combo, BURNOUT and LUCID 3D. Backed up two disks (4 swaps each) using COPY.BA without a hitch. I suspect that DESKTEAM's on screen clock is the problem. BURNOUT blanked the screen during the WRITE phase of Swap 2 and M100COM continued to function into the WRITE phase of Swap 3. I just remembered that I can turn the DESKTEAM clock off. I'll try that later and let you know. By the way, my drives seem to be running less and saving (or loading) more. You've been a BIG help. Thanks! Fm: Al Pound 75715,1077 To: Len Tucker 71555,1002 I booted up my system tonight with my regular boot disk which loads all the programs that I listed before and turned off the On Screen Clock in Deskteam. The result was that I was able to back up 5 TDD disks using COPY.BA without a hitch. I left several files in my M100 so only 16K of RAM was available so it took 6 Swaps for two of the Disks. In all cases, BURNOUT turned off the screen long before the backup was completed. Apparently, the clock was the problem magnified by having only two buffers. Thank you for an excellent program and on target help. Fm: Al Pound 75715,1077 To: Len Tucker 71555,1002 Something happened. I used your M100COM and PowrDOS's COPY.BA to backup 5 PDD disks on the same T1K disk as the program in drive A. I then used M100COM and COPY.BA to backup 6 PDD disks on the Drive B disk with the program in drive A. Now no matter what I do I get: "Path not found in line 780 of M100COMI at address OD5A:1485 Hit any key to return to system." The first four characters of the address vary somewhat (0D5A ; 0D54 ; etc.) but last four (1485) haven't changed. I've rebooted without TSR programs, used a different copy of the program, changed to another M100 RAM bank, changed T1K drives, checked connections and some other things. I've been able to SAVE single text files from the file using "Save to::filename". Any suggestions will be appreciated. Fm: Len Tucker 71555,1002 To: Al Pound 75715,1077 In order for the program to handle lfiles requests it is necessary for me to setup a couple of temporary files on the default directory. You mave have noticed them. They are PDD_DIR.DAT and PDD_DIR.BAK. They are setup by SHELLing out of basic and doing a DIR command during the initialization of the program. Because of this there are a couple of requirements that must be satisfied. First there must be a copy of COMMAND.COM on the boot disk, and secondly there must be enough room on the default drive to hold the temporary files. Check to see if you think there is enough room on the disk in drive A and let me know. Also, since you are using floppies you should know that if you change disks you should re-log onto the drive just as if you were changing the drive and directory (F9 key). Also the sectors free is not updated for additions and deletions after you log on to the drive. Fm: Len Tucker 71555,1002 To: Al Pound 75715,1077 What ever happened to your problem with m100com program? I'd like to see if it can be fixed if it is a bug in the program. Fm: Al Pound 75715,1077 To: Len Tucker 71555,1002 I've been traveling so I haven't had a chance to log onto CIS to comment after your last message. I erased all the PDD_DIR files on both disks and started M100COM just like it was new. I still got the "Path not found in line 780 of M100COMI at address OD5A:1485 error. I read the PDD_DIR files and saw that they were partial listings of the disk directory. How does M100COM decide which files to list. I thought maybe my disk directory in drive A may include too many files but haven't had a chance to try running the program from an almost empty disk. Fm: Len Tucker 71555,1002 To: Al Pound 75715,1077 The program SHELL's out of Basic and does a DIR ??????.* > PDD_DIR.BAK which stores all files with 6 characters or less. The program further edits the listing to a format easier to work with and then stores the result in PDD_DIR.DAT. In a later version of the program I go ahead and delete the BAK file since it is not needed after startup. You should not need much space to work with on the disk. Only enough to hold the two PDD_DIR files and handle any temporary file it might create when it makes a new copy. How much space do you show on the disk in question? Also does the time and date stamp on the two files correspond with when the program was run? Fm: Al Pound 75715,1077 To: Len Tucker 71555,1002 Problem resolved. It was caused by characters in the filenames. I'm sure you and probably any other MSDOS programmer would have figured it out right away had you been able to look over my shoulder. Apparently MSDOS doesn't accept all the same characters in file names as does the M100. The first file read on the disk that wouldn't copy was S/CMRY. Changing the "/" to a "_" enabled COPY.BA to to back up the entire TDD disk to the T1K. I've happily backed up several disks this afternoon after changing "/'s", "+'s" and other things to "_". Again, thanks for your help and for sharing M100COM.