MS-Windows on Zenith-158/No Escape???

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2 total messages Started by Ted Holden Sat, 27 Sep 1986 11:51

#8069

Author: Ted Holden
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1986 11:51

23 lines
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Recently, I saw one of the worst PC nightmares I've ever heard of.  Users at a
client site had taken delivery four weeks ago of a Zenith 158 with Windows on
it and had been unable to use the machine for anything other than the 
Windows Reversi game;  Windows was all they could see on the machine no matter
what they did.  The machine could not be booted from a floppy (it had some
way of jumping to the autoexec.bat file on the hard disk, which I've never
seen before), and even after I got out of Windows via alt-space-bar (which the
client folks hadn't been informed of by the vendor) and DELETED the autoexec
file on the hard disk, the damned thing STILL behaved as if that autoexec
file was still there.  The only thing which finally worked was to simply
alt-space out of Windows and re-format the hard disk, after which the 158
behaved like an ordinary computer again.  

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has a reasonably good idea of
what I was seeing and how it worked.  I personally know very little about
windows other than that it doesn't seem to work well without a mouse (I 
hate mice), that the mag editors all black-balled it, and that I would
heavily recommend its ABSENCE on any micro intended for serious use, based
on what I've seen.

Ted Holden,  IMS

Re: MS-Windows on Zenith-158/No Escape???

#8085

Author: Nicholas Solntseff
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1986 17:57

33 lines
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> 
> 
> Recently, I saw one of the worst PC nightmares I've ever heard of.  Users at a
> client site had taken delivery four weeks ago of a Zenith 158 with Windows on
> it and had been unable to use the machine for anything other than the 
> Windows Reversi game;  Windows was all they could see on the machine no matter
> what they did.  The machine could not be booted from a floppy ............
> 
> Ted Holden,  IMS
>
(1) All Zenith machines have a ROM monitor which can be accessed by the 
    following interrupt

                   ctrl-alt-ins   key combination.

    If  bf   is entered on the ? prompt, boot will proceed from floppy A;
    If  bw   is entered                  boot will proceed from winchester C.

    This can be used to avoid a hard-disk boot.

(2) Alternately, switch seetings exist to invoke the ROM monitor on power-up,
    after which proceed as above.

(3) Rom monitor help can be invoked by entering  ?  on the ? prompt.

(4) For what its is worth -- I love windows and I love mice;  I find myself
    moving the mouse instinctively now, even if the program I am using
    refuses to react.  MS Windows is valuable to me because it provides a
    reasonable amount of multi-tasking, which is not, for example, available
    with GEM or other products.  I can have several programs operating in the
    background while I am engaged in a foreground task.  AND IT WORKS!

ns@maccs.UUCP (utzoo!mnetor!genat!maccs!ns)

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