PSB No: S-0167
Page: 7 of 7
Q.
How can I tell if an error message is caused by hardware or software?
A.
Hardware-generated error messages are fairly specific - such as parity errors,
device failures, etc. Either hardware or software problems can cause
panic
or
kernel panic
errors at boot-up - such messages will usually include
additional information related to the error condition, and you should write down
the exact error message as displayed. A message such as
RDP exception
typically indicates a hardware or software configuration error.
Q.
What should I do if I think there's a hardware problem but NeXTSTEP
doesn't clearly isolate it?
A.
The first step would be to run some thorough diagnostic software on the
system. Unfortunately, there are no readily available Mach or UNIX-based
diagnostics, due to the fact that UNIX is relatively "hardware-blind". There are
a number of excellent third-party DOS-based diagnostic programs available
such as QA Plus, AMI Diagnostics, Landmark AT Service Diagnostics and
CheckIt Tools. If there is a hardware problem, one of these programs should
identify it. If it doesn't and you still feel there is a problem, you might want to
have an authorized service technician check the system out.
Q.
What do I do if I want to change the hard disk partition sizes?
A.
Obviously, the first thing to do is back up your data. Then, from DOS, run the
FDISK utility to change the partition sizes. Of course, you'll have to reinstall
DOS, Windows and NeXTSTEP. Be sure that you install DOS first - if you
install NeXTSTEP and then install DOS, DOS 6 does something to the partition
table that doesn't really work correctly with NeXTSTEP.
Q.
Is there any problem using the DoubleSpace disk compression utility
included with MS-DOS 6.0?
A.
No. Follow the directions in the
MS-DOS User's Guide
for preparing the disk
and then running DBLSPACE.EXE. This program reboots the computer twice
in the process, so make sure that you select to boot DOS each time so as not
to disturb the compression process. The only effect this has from the
NeXTSTEP perspective is that your DOS files will no longer be available from
NeXTSTEP - instead of the
MS-DOS_6
disk icon, you'll see one called
host_for_c
- this is the uncompressed partition that DoubleSpace uses for the
actual compressed volume.
Q.
What about MemMaker?
A.
MemMaker, the memory optimizer included with MS-DOS 6.0, has absolutely
no effect on NeXTSTEP. It can safely be used to optimize memory utilization
for MS-DOS and Windows.
