On Sat, 21 Sep 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>Well i'm not much of a hardware person so I never really looked to see if
>there was a hardware switch in the first place. I've heard from other HP
>users about bad experiences trying to take the case on the HP off.
The "hardware" switch means really a firmware address whose memory can't
be accessed except to "look" at it with software, load the accumulator
with the value it has just to make it change state--on or off. So
don't look for it inside the box.
I have an older book, Programmer's PC Sourcebook, by Thom Hogan, that
documents this stuff.
>sounds as if it's a general pain in the a$$.
Only if you don't like to do it. 8)
> .. it's still very annoying that HP
>never decided to put in a setting in the bios setup program to disable
>video/bios shadowing.
Am sure it is.
>heh most systems that you buy in the store don't give you detailed manuals
oh, no, always for sale, not in the store, usually. Not a general
public kind of item. Except perhaps in Japan where even little kids
build robots.
> you suggest I call tech support because I hate the very idea of
>that.
Yes I agree it is wasteful to call m$oft because they are in business,
and all of their subcontractor support companies are in business to
extract the money from customers. But they must be the worst example of
that.
I would have thought that hp would be more supportive though, for its
proprietary parts.
>I never ever had to call tech support for any of my past and present
>systems. I choose not to ....
Unfortunate. But I didn't mean to call "tech support", exactly. I see
where hp toll-free's on the site you gave me warns the call might be
directed to toll number. I meant call, identify the department, perhaps
the engineer who decided to leave out the access. Perhaps that is
unrealistic for HP.
It wouldn't work to call with just general "why" questions because
someone has to figure out what you really want to know, and that's what
costs money. Sort of like going to a lawyer. The meter is running,
have to have the right questions ready. Looks like they have a
different number for potential customers. They aren't likely to charge
for prospective customer's questions, like "I hear that particular pc
has no shadow switch, isn't that unusual? ...I need to know before I
buy..."
>I get the impression after reading your entire post that you think i'm some
>sort of programmer <g>? I know some programming (assembly, qbasic, c, c++,
gee, I thought that dosemu was still in the experimental stages, that it
would require some programming to get it working. Also, it is dangerous
to mess with video without knowing something of how it works, so am
hoping I too can learn using the manuals and source.
>> HP somehow uses its own
>> shadowing algorithms/switches/memory moves. Where and how it does it
>> is documented somewhere or no one could write code for it.
> ... What do you mean no one could write code for it? This system is
> like any other pc clone/compatable out there.
Except for no shadow switch...
> My bios is a Phoenix bios btw (modified
> for this system obviously so any other Phoenix bios update that didn't
> come from HP would probably hose the bios and the system).
Have an old Phoenix Technical Ref, a guide to ROM-Based system software.
It's the hp system programmers who refer to and write code based on
these manuals. This one probably too old, but it essentially addresses
the video adapter switches, ports and other I/O component switches.
Without reference manuals, the Phoenix people wouldn't be able to write
the BIOS programs either.
Now, am going to see if dosemu will work for me. I have the Quake II
cd and Tombraider to get working, hopefully.
Cheers, Pat
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