Steve,
  See my inline responses below:

Message: 2
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2019 20:35:34 -0400
From: Stephen Adolph <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Cc: Model 100 Discussion <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [M100] Serious REX Problem
Message-ID:
        <CAMCMnV5y+Dz5wyoL6OAWqxAF=t0japbxm-_344+drmgvc5x...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Hi Peter ,

Setting aside why it failed for the  moment,

If all you did was hit the reset button then REX manager would not start up
on CALL63012.

I suggest that you
1) power  cycle + cold restart in one move.   Or cold reset, power cycle,
cold reset. This will reset REX.
2) then call 63012..rex mgr should start up.

I tried the second suggestion of #1 and REXMGR restarted, and was able to
access the saved images.

Not saying rex software doe not have issues .. just that a reset does
nothing to rex.

I wasn't sure if there were any parameters held in REX that required
running REXMGR to clear.

It is normal that rex presents an option rom to the t102 after cold reset.
 If an option rom was configured before the reset it will remain configured
after reset.  Only a power cycle resets REX.  There is no reset signal on
the option to  socket.

Understand. Option ROM loaded was ROMII+Cleusaeu

Was Rom2 configured to be present on REX at the ti e?

No, only running the standard OS in the T102 itself.

Why do you think it needs to be reflashed?  Btw what load is installed?
Checksum = ?  Do you have the latest?

I wasn't sure if there were any parameters held in REX that required
running REXMGR to clear. And when REXMGR disappeared I was expecting a
re-flash may be required. REX version is 4.9

You can certainly do that it you want to but normally the only reason to
reflash rex is when the directory is corrupted.  Not sure this is that...

REX directory and function appears to be undamaged.

Prior to the incident, what option rom  was rex configured to set?

ROMII+Cleuseau

Debugging a failure on a system that is not in ones hands and does not
repeat, is challenging.

Understand. I was an embedded firmware OS programmer for 30 years.

You should try a simple test to see what happens to you:
1) With REX hooks enabled, start BASIC
2) Load a program about 2-3K in size
3) Type "edit" to start the TEXT editor to edit the program
4) Wait 15-20 minutes, to be sure that the system idle timer fires (be sure
to externally power the computer)
5) Try to type to add or change a line.
6) If the computer locks up, ONLY press the reset button.

Thx
Steve

Thanks for the help. REX seems to be back under control. I will add your
instructions to my documentation (I find that the published docs are a bit
outdated)

Peter



On Sunday, August 25, 2019, Peter Noeth <[email protected]> wrote:

>   I was doing some BASIC programming on my T102 using the Text editor. I
> put it down to attend to the laundry, and came back 15 or 20 minutes later
> to continue on with the T102, where I found that typing on the computer
> produced garbage characters on the screen and then the computer locked up.
> REX was enabled at the time.
>
>   I pressed the Reset button and the computer restarted like doing a cold
> boot (date back to 1900).  Going into BASIC and typing 'CALL 63012' did
not
> re-initialize REX, but instead initialized "Cleuseau", which is the Option
> ROM image I had loaded into REX.
>
>   I believe there is a problem in REX when using the TEXT program (at
> least while editing a BASIC program) and the computer's 'Power Down Timer'
> triggers.
>
>   Had anyone else experience this?
>
>   Fortunately, all my files (except the one I was editing) are backed up
> on my desktop computer, but it looks like the REX may need to be
> re-flashed. I don't have the equipment to re-flash it (nor do I want to
buy
> yet another programming interface to do so), so will probably send it to
> Josh Malone (I bought it from him at Tandy Assembly) for checkout.
>
>   The point here is that the REX firmware needs to be debugged for these
> conditions, and hopefully fixed.
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter
>

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