Hi, folks --
One of my dear old PCs is an authentic IBM XT with a BIOS dating
from 1-10-86. Occasionally, the machine -- when idle from anywhere
between a few minutes to several hours -- freezes up. The screen
appears normal, cursor blinking, but without any ability to change
anything with the keyboard. The original diagnostic disk indicates
Error 102, which is a system unit/board error -- maybe. I've not
seen a *precise* meaning for 102 (100 is normal; anything higher
indicates an abnormality). All other parts of the computer pass
the diagnostic tests, except for when I connect one or both of
the ports of a dual serial/parallel card to a printer and an
external modem. Thinking that this card was the culprit, I
removed it but would still experience the occasional freeze; I
even stripped the machine down to a bare-bones system and
experienced the same thing. Odd thing about it is that as long
as I'm working along with the machine, nothing happens -- it's
only when the machine is idle for some period of time that it
acts this way.
Does this problem sound familiar to anyone? Any ideas?
Also, on this authentic IBM AT (on which I'm writing this
message to you), I've noticed a few times that the screen will
go blank, except for the message "Parity Check 1; 60000 (s)".
My understanding is that Parity Check 1 indicates an error in
one of the RAM memory chips, but the error has only occured when
I'm using Net-Tamer along with a certain WordStar-like little
editor called "Edit.com" while writing a *new* e-mail message.
Does anyone understand what the "60000 (s)" stands for, and
whether it's possible for a program bug to cause such an error
message?
In both of the errors of these two machines, it is always possible
to reboot and return to normal. It only bothers me that I can't
figure out precisely what is occuring.
Thank you for your suggestions!
Jerry [o:--] "The" IBM AT/5170 model 319 [--^~---] 9600kbps/30M HD
*1986 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| [ =====_] 512k RAM - 8MHz
Net-Tamer V 1.11.2X - Registered
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