SENSATION!  (250-1650)        Hints And Tips            Faxback Doc. # 1208

* Sensation! and 250-1087 External Floppy

There is a drive designation conflict when the External 1.2MB Floppy Drive
is added to the Tandy Sensation!. The specific problem is that the CD-ROM
drive needs to be drive D: and the external floppy drive, when installed, is
already configured as drive D:. This is because the external floppy drive's
drivers are loaded first in the CONFIG.SYS file, and configure the external
floppy to drive D:. There is no option to designate which drive letter will
be used by the external floppy drive. The CD-ROM driver, loaded in the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file, will check all drive designations and configure the
CD-ROM drive for the next available drive letter (E:).

The external floppy as drive D: and the CD-ROM as drive E: will cause
problems with the WinMate software. As some of the Winmate applications
expect the CR-ROM drive to be dive D:.

There is a disk available from Computer Support Services to fix this issue.
This disk contains a file DEV.COM, which will allow the external floppy
drive's driver to be loaded after the CD-ROM driver. This will correctly
configure the CD-ROM drive as drive D: and the external floppy drive as
drive E:.

Below are the installation instructions:

   1. Find these files on your hard drive:

        extdrvr.sys
        extfmt.com
        extdrive.com
        backfmt.com

      These files could be in the root, dos, or windows sub-directories
      depending on how the original software was installed.

Note: Examples are given as if the drivers are located in the c:\windows
      sub-directory.

   2. Copy DEV.COM from the floppy drive to the directory where the above
      listed files were found.

      Example:    copy a:dev.com c:\windows

   3. Find the CONFIG.SYS file in the root directory and remove the line that
      reads:

      Example:     device=c:\windows\extdrvr.sys

   4. Find the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the root directory, add the following
      line below the "loadhigh visbios"* line:

* The example line given below should be loaded after any "loadhigh"
  command lines. Adding the line before a "loadhigh" statement will cause
  the cpu to lock up.

      Example:     c:\windows\dev=c:\windows\extdrvr.sys

Note: Remove the "assign d=e e=d" if the work around has been done.

   5. Reboot the computer and verify that the external floppy is now drive
      E: and the CD Rom drive is still D:


If you do not yet have the new disk, below is a temporary workaround:

This work around will reassign the drive designations to make the external
floppy work correctly with the Sensation! until the update disk arrives.

 Use the DOS "assign" command to re-assign the drive designations.
 Add this line to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, right after the PATH line.

   assign d=e e=d

 If you wish to check that the re-assignment has worked, use this command
 at the DOS prompt to verify:

   assign /s  <ENTER>

 You should see the following:

   Original D: set to E:
   Original E: set to D:

Note: In Windows File Manager, the drive icons will not correctly indicate
      the type of drive being accessed.  The icons will show in this manner:

      Drive D: which is a CD-ROM will have a hard drive icon.
      Drive E: which is a 5 1/4" floppy will have a CD-ROM icon.

* Notes on Memory Management

Problems Loading into the Upper Memory Area:

Some computers with bus master DMA controllers may not be able to load
device drivers or programs into the upper memory area. Try adding a
DEVICE=SMARTDRV.SYS command before any DEVICEHIGH commands in your
CONFIG.SYS file.

Intel Expanded-Memory Driver (EMM.SYS)

If you use Intel's EMM.SYS driver with Aboveboard, use EMM.SYS version 4.0
revision D or later. If you have an earlier version, contact Intel for a
free upgrade.

* Notes on Windows

"High Memory Area in Use" Message (Windows/386 2.1):

You cannot run Windows/386 2.1 when MS-DOS 5.0 is loaded into the high
memory area. Also, the MS-DOS 5.0 versions of SMARTDRV.SYS and RAMDRIVE.SYS
are not compatible with Windows/386 2.1. To run Windows/386 2.1 with MS-DOS
5.0, use the versions of SMARTDRV.SYS and RAMDRIVE.SYS that came with
Windows and remove the DOS=HIGH command, if any, from your CONFIG.SYS file.

"Cannot run Windows in standard mode" Message:

If you have a DEVICE=EMM386.EXE command that includes the RAM or NOEMS
switch in your CONFIG.SYS file, you cannot run Windows 3.0 in standard mode.
Either remove the RAM or NOEMS switch or run Windows in real or enhanced
mode. (If you remove RAM or NOEMS, you won't be able to load programs and
device drivers into the upper memory area. If you include RAM or NOEMS, you
won't be able to run Windows in standard mode.)

Note: Using EMM386 may reduce the amount of extended memory available to
Windows and cause Windows to try to start in standard mode. To prevent this,
reduce the amount of extended memory that other device drivers use. For
example, if you are using SMARTDrive, try setting the MinCacheSize parameter
to 0.

Norton Utilities Reporting 256K Video Memory:

Norton Utilities does not report the correct amount of video memory in the
Tandy Sensation!. The standard VGA BIOS function that reports the amount
of memory only goes up to 256K.  The WD VGA BIOS in the Sensation! has its
own BIOS function that can report the actual amount of video memory. Norton
Utilities apparently does not use these specific BIOS functions, but instead
relies on the IBM standard BIOS function that only reports up to 256K. If the
machine is able to get into Windows/Winmate, then the video memory is working
correctly. (640 X 480 256 color mode requires 512K)

(smm 09/06/93)