Epson Equity 386/20 Product Support Bulletin page 6

Subject: Equity 386/20 Patch for Novell NetWare 386
Date: 4/11/90
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This bulletin is to inform you of the solution to a problem that occurs when
running Novell NetWare 386 on the Equity 386/20. Note that the problem only
appears when booting the 386/20 from floppy diskette, which is common
practice to allow
NetWare 386 volume.
When the SERVER program enters 80386 protected mode, it shuts down the
floppy disk motor(s). After shutting down the motor(s), SERVER does not
update the BIOS motor status byte located at 0040:003F. In the motor status
byte, bit 0 = 1 indicates drive 0 (A:) motor is currently on. Bit 1 = 1
indicates drive 1 (6:) motor is currently on.
When SERVER needs to load a file (.NLM, .LAN, or .DSK), it switches back to
real mode to let DOS handle file manipulation. DOS then calls the BIOS to
access the floppy. The BIOS checks the motor status flag, which is on. The
BIOS then attempts to access the floppy while the motor is off. After about
one second,
the
incomplete). Depending on the DOS function in process, DOS may not be
able to recover and complete the function.
In particular, these DOS functions may not recover if they are initiated when
the motor status flag is on, but the drive motor is actually off: Read From
File (function 3Fh) and Find First (function 4Eh). Read From File will fail if the
file is already open, the flag is on and the motor is off. Find First (search
for matching file name) will fail if
name, the flag is on and the motor is off.
The solution for this is a small (301 bytes) patch program called
N386FIX.COM. This patch, when executed prior to running the NetWare 386
SERVER program, will properly set the motor status flag.
The compressed file N386FIX.ZIP may be found on the Epson Product Support
RBBS in the file library PATCH. It is also available from the Epson Forum on
Compuserve. It contains the executable file as well as an explanatory ASCII
text file, N386FIX.DOC. Download with protocol and decompress with any utility
that handles the .ZIP file format.
Product Support Bulletin
entire hard disk drive to be partitioned as a single
the
BIOS returns an error of 80h (timeout) or 40h (seek
the
search string contains a subdirectory
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