Frequently asked questions, problems, workarounds and solutions for PTSDOS. Compiled by Tobias Ernst. This list is updated continuously and published monthly in the Fidonet echomail area PTSDOS.GER. The latest version of this FAQ is also available as "PTSFAQ.TXT" for download/frequest at my mailbox (numbers see Section II).
Section I - Problems and Bugs, Technical Stuff
Section II - Support, Distribution etc.
Section III - The PTS-DOS Buglist
Q: How can I use a CD-ROM drive with PTSDOS? MSCDEX refuses to work with
PTSDOS.
A: Try using NWCDEX (Novell Dos 7.0) or MSCDEX (of IBM PC-DOS), if you
have access to these drivers.
A: Use version 6.51CD. V6.51 provides an internal CD- ROM support so that
MSCDEX ist not needed any longer.
A: Use version 6.6. It is able to run MSCDEX directly.
Q: My Mitsumi ATAPI CD-ROM drive still does not work with PTSDOS
A: This seems to be a bug in the Mitsumi drivers, because it only happens in
certain constellations and with certain revisions of the Mitsumi drivers.
Try one of the following:
a) Try playing around with the Quiet=xx - Setting in Config.Sys. Using
Quiet=Yes seems to help in some cases. But also Quiet=No could help.
b) Load the Mitsumi driver (MTMDCDAI.SYS) first of all.
c) You may download/frequest the file MITSUMI.LZH from my mailbox
(numbers see below, section "Support"). It contains a driver which
replaces the buggy MTMDCDAI.SYS and has solved the problem in most
cases.
d) Use PTSDOS 6.6. It is able to run MSCDEX directly.
Q: I have strange problems with my hard disk (lost clusters and so on).
A: It is highly advisable to entirely reformat your harddisk using the
fdisk and format programs which are included on your PTSDOS disk prior
to using PTSDOS on your hard disk regularly.
Q: I tried to entirely repartition and reformat my hard disk using the
installation routine, but it does not work.
A: This bug is gone in version 6.6. In the meantime, try the following:
Several problems were encountered with the installation routine of
PTSDOS. Usually, using FDISK to repartition your hard disk is no
problem, but the installation routine might be unable to format your
hard disk afterwards. In this case, do as follows:
1. Quit the installation routine and return to the dos prompt. If,
after leaving the installation routine, you do not see the dos
prompt, but the CP menu, and if you are unable to quit CP using
F10, you must type
command
to start the command line.
2. Type:
format c: /s
Your hard disk will be reformatted, but you will proably get an
error message that the system could not be transferred to the hard
disk.
3. Make sure the installation disk is in the current drive and type:
sys c:
Now, the system should be correctly transferred to your hard disk.
4. Reboot your computer in order to restart the installation process.
This time, perform the installation without selecting to start
FDISK or to format the hard drive, because you already have done it
manually.
Q: I have several timing problems. Delays take much longer than they
should; my terminal program is unable to correctly count seconds etc.
pp.
A: Remove the CPU=FAST statement from your Config.Pts.
Q: I want to install MS Windows for the first time, but the installation
process is interrupted after the DOS part of SETUP is completed, and
the system is locked. This occurs although I used the "windows
compatible" startup option.
A: For the installation of MS Windows, make a raw boot (i.e. use a
Config.Pts and Autopts.Bat with none but the most necessary lines and
the keyboard driver). After the installation is completed, you may
again use the "windows compatbile" startup mode.
A: Newer releases of PTSDOS allow you to select a "Installations"-Mode in
the startup menu. This should work as well.
Q: Windows refuses to start. The System is locked.
A: There are a lot of reasons for that. First make sure that you use the
settings of the "windows compatible" startup option. In the worst
case, make a raw boot and then add your settings step by step until you
have found which line was responsible for the problem. Then let ME
know!!!
A: Windows does not like FILES buffers loaded into XMS.
Q: I am using the german keyboard setting, and Caps Lock does not work.
A: This problem is fixed in V6.51, but still exists in V6.6 ...
A: The problem is limited to the german keyboard layout of PhysTechSoft
versions. You may fix the problem by using NKD.COM (which allows you to
define your own keyboard layout) instead of KEYB.COM. Alternatively, you
may use your own keyboard driver - there are lots of shareware or
freeware keyboard drivers which use only about half a kilobyte of memory.
Q: After using PTSDOS for a few days, I found bugs in my fidonet message
base, i.e. wrong message texts, "chinese" chars etc.
A: This problem is known to occur with McMail/IMail/Timed and Crosspoint.
It was only observed when using PTSDOS on a hard disk which was
formatted by MSDOS. Make a backup of your hard disk and repartition
and reformat it using PTSDOS.
Q: Although I never had a Windows crash or things like that, I am getting
lost clusters and other errors in the file structure of my hard disk.
A: Before you execute CHKDSK, you must disable SMARTDRV. If the problem
persists (or if you were not using SMARTDRV ;-), see above:
Repartition and reformat your hard disk using PTSDOS.
Q: I tried to load a device driver into UMB memory, but although plenty of
UMB memory was free, it still took up a considerable amount of
conventional memory.
A: Probably the driver's code was correctly put into UMB, but the program
tried to allocate further memory blocks, which were taken from
conventional memory. You can solve this problem by using SETDRV /U to
load the driver in your Autopts.Bat file instead of using DEVICEHIGH in
your Config.Pts file.
Q: UMB? How can I make PTSDOS use UMB?
A: PTSDOS is fully capable of handling upper memory blocks with commands
like DEVICEHIGH and LOADHIGH (LH) - the only problem is that there is
no program included that makes UMB memory available (like EMM386 in
most other DOS operating systems).
You may use a commercial memory manager like QEMM to provide UMB
memory. QEMM seems to work fine with PTSDOS. It is not advisable to
use MSDOS's EMM386.EXE together with PTSDOS, because it will make the
system unstable.
Another way to provide UMB memory is to directly reprogram your
motherboards's chipset. Most chipsets set aside 384K of system memory
as shadow ram, but as the BIOS ROM is only from 32K to 96K of size,
plenty of memory remains unused. This memory can be mapped into the
UMB area and used as normal UMB RAM. An advantage of this method is
that your CPU stays in Real Mode, which is considerable faster and more
compatbile than the V86-Mode into which your CPU is switched by EMM386
et. al. Furthermore, UMB RAM is not taken from your extended memory,
but from reserved memory, which would otherwise remain unused.
This reprogramming is totally dependent on your system's chipset. You
have to search for a program that does it for your specific system.
These programs are regularly available as freeware or shareware. Write
a question in PTSDOS.GER for details. ;)
Q: I have problems when using a folder / datacomp drive and a hard disk
cache (e.g. SMARTDRV, PTSCACHE, HYPERDISK, ...)
A: You must disable the cache for the COMPRESSED drive and have it cache
the host drive (the drive with the uncompressed disk space) ONLY. As
all data of the compressed drive is stored on the host drive, this
measure will not negatively affect your system's performence.
Q: When I am trying to print out a document on my HP Deskjet printer using
MS Windows, I always get a "printer is offline" message box on the
screen. Although the printing process is not interrupted and the
message box disappears on its own, I am heavily annoyed of this because
I can't do other things on my computer while anything is printed.
A: You can prevent the box from appearing as follows: Start the Windows
Control Panel and enter the Printer section. There you have to
activate that dialog box in which you can select the printer port. If
your printer is connected to LPT1:, change this to LPT1.DOS (at the
bottom of the list, after the COM ports ;), if it is connected to
LPT2:, change this to LPT2.DOS.
Q: I solved the problem with my HP Deskjet Printer as you said, but now
the printout is intolerable slow.
A: Get the newest version of the HP Deskjet series driver (V 5.0).
Printing speed will not be the same as under MSDOS, but at least faster
than with older printer driver versions.
Q: PTSDOS does not work on my pentium computer
A: Use version 6.51 or above.
Q: Which fossil driver do I have to use with my fidonet mailer?
A: PTS-Fossil is not compatible to "revision 4". (At least, FrontDoor
says so and refuses to start). BNU does not work (system hangs after
init screen). X00 Version 1.53 seems to be OK. Not that, if you are
using PTSDOS 6.6, you must not load X00 using device= in CONFIG.PTS. Use
loadhigh in AUTOPTS.BAT instead.
Q: My memory is fragmented: Although 620K are free, the maximum size for
an executable program is only about 590K.
A: This effect is caused by Command.Com if you are using the /E:xxxx
switch in the SHELL line of CONFIG.PTS. The environment is then (and
only then) placed in an odd place where it divides your 620K of free
memory into a large area of 590K and a small area of 30K. There are two
possible solutions:
1.: Leave out the /E command switch. Although of course the
environment is still allocated, it now is in a more convenient
place.
2.: If you need to define the environment size via the /E:xxxx switch,
you may try to stuff the memory hole afterwards: Remove all
device= entries from your Config.Pts and load these drivers via
SETDRV from your Autopts.Bat file. The effect will be that
command.com, the 30 KB hole and the environment block will be
placed earlier in the system memory, and the drivers that are
loaded after command.com will be placed into the 30KB hole.
Please note that you must not load Folder.Sys via Setdrv!!!
3.: Try to provide UMB Ram and use SHELLHIGH instead of SHELL. This
will also eliminate this strange effect.
(*)
Q: What's this all about with PhysTechSoft, Paragon, PTSDOS, PT$DOS, ... !?
PTSDOS has originally been developed at PhysTechSoft, Moscow, an
enterprise which is sponsered by the Russion Defense Ministry. They
finally gained allowance to distribute their DOS commercially, which lead
to the releases of PTSDOS V6.4 and V6.5 in Germany.
In 1995, some programmers (according to their statements dissatisfied
with the vast bureaucracy at PhysTechSoft) left PhysTechSoft and took
copies of the whole source code of PTSDOS with them. They founded
"Paragon" and released an own version of their DOS, PT$DOS 6.51CD. This
version fixed a lot of urgent bugs in PTSDOS 6.5
In the meantime, PhysTechSoft released PTSDOS 6.6, which also fixed a lot
of bugs in V6.5.
According to the president of PhysTechSoft, Paragon has no permission to
sell anything abroad and is therefore not only violating copyright laws,
but also Russian military law. We are going to see a major lawsuit in
this case.
Q: Who is the official distributor of PhysTechSoft PTSDOS in Germany?
As of this writing, there is nobody who could sell you the legal verison
of PTSDOS in Germany. :-(
Q: Who is the official distributor of Paragon PT$DOS in Germany?
A: ComKom GmbH, Joerresstr. 10, 53474 Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.
Tel. 02641-900306, Fax: 02641-900306
Note that you might be buying an illegal copy of PT$DOS.
Q: What is the latest version of PTSDOS?
A: See the above statement on PhysTechSoft and Paragon.
Q: Are there any means of electronic support?
A: Well, in Fidonet, there is me and the PTSDOS.GER :-). It is heard that
there is also an e-mail address in the Internet somewhere in Germany,
but this rumour has not yet been proved. Please contact me, if you
have any new information about that.
You may also look into my Mailbox:
Badnerland BBS, Fido: 2:2476/418
Analog: 0721-9374498 (v.42,v.42b,v.fc,v.34)
ISDN: 0721-9374498 (x.75, i.e. ISDNC)
As this Mailbox is run noncommercially, you must no expect the same
range of support known from commercial support mailboxes.
Q: Why the hell is this FAQ written in English?
A: Because the programmers of PTSDOS don't understand German, but want to
read the FAQ (and especially the buglist) anyway. If there are enough
users requesting a German version, I might one day start keeping a bi-
lingual list ... Or is anybody out there, who might want to do the
translation? :-)
This buglist of PTSDOS was compiled by Tobias Ernst from both own experience and mails in the fido newsgroup PTSDOS.GER. It is intended to be forwarded to the programmes of PTSDOS hoping that they will either fix the bugs mentioned or at least tell us how to work around them. Suggestions welcome.