excellence! 3.0 problem
28 messages in this thread
For some strange reason I can't intall excellence! 3.0 on my main hard
drive. After the installation script runs I reboot the computer (so the
assignments can take effect), open the window, double click the excellence!
icon and the program crashes. The e! screen appears and I get a software
error 8000000B. If (after rebooting) I move the excellence! program icon
to the RAM disk it works fine. I can install the program on my SyQuest but
not my main hard drive. I thought there might be a bad spot on the hard
drive so I renamed the excellence! drawer too excellence!_OLD and dragged
the working drawer from my SyQuest and I still get the same crash.
Thinking there might be something wrong in the Uers-startup I renamed it so
that only my plain vanilla startup-sequence would be engaged during bootup
(except for the assigns the excellence! install script put into the s-s.)
I still get the same crash. I have installed MANY programs on my hard
drive but htis is the first time I have ever had this happen. I called MSS
and they said to look for an old configuration file but I did not have one
and I elliminated that possibility when I renamed the old drawer and
created the program from scratch. I'm really stumped on this one! Could
someone please help me?!
Leslie,
I had a similar problem while installing E3.0 on my system. After rebooting
from the error message, I ran the Verify program provided an the disks and
two files cam up as bad: the E3.0 program and the dictionary file.
All I did was copy the files manually from the floppies to my hard drive
and all was fine.
With all the different hardware and software combos on the Amiga, I chalked
it up to a `system conflict' 😉 (mainly because it installed fine on
another machine).
Philip Laitar
Supervisor
I'm glad this happened to someone else. It proves I'm not crazy. But…
I DID try copying the program manually. Several times! I can't understand
why the program works when I drag the supposedly bad file into the RAM disk
and double click it there. If I install the program on my SyQuest cart it
will work and it will work from floppies. I will try another complete copy
but I don't hold out much hope. If anyone else has an answer PLEASE let me
know!
Leslie:
Did you perchance have excellence! 2.0 in a different location than where
you now have 3.0, and maybe forget to delete the old assign in your
startup-sequence? <grasping at straws>
Michael
….from the north coast
I also grasped at the Startup-Sequence/User-startup straw too. I have gone
over all my assignments and can find nothing wrong. excellence! 3.0 was
installed (many times now) in the same drawer 2.0 used to reside. I even
thought there might be some sort of "invisible" file that I knew nothing
about so I renamed my e! 2.0 drawer excellence!_OLD, took out the
assignments the script program inserted and started fresh. Everything went
into place fine. The assignments (excellence! & doctools) were properly
inserted into the Startup-sequence. I rebooted to computer to make doubly
sure the assignments fond their way. When I opened the window and double
clicked the icon the program crashes. (BTW it also crashes if started from
the CLI.) Thanks, Michael, for trying to help.
Leslie:
Gee, I haven't a clue. The INSTALL script worked fine on my A3000. Let us
know what you find out.
Michael
….from the north coast
When it gets resolved, I'll post the results whether the problem gets
resolved by hardware, software, or FM (Freakin' Magic.) <g>
Is there any way to Excellence! to print postscript through the serial
port??????
-Jonathan
Yes. On the print requester, put SER: in the print to file box.
wmc
This is standard. In the Print to File line, enter in: SER: that's all it
takes, straight to serial port, bypasses any printer drivers , prints much
faster, but you gotta make sure that your printer and amiga serial port
preferences are at the same speed.
Duh! I figured it out right after I sent the message! Thanks!
Leslie,
Do you have another "physical" hard drive? If so, can you copy the
program to that other drive and run it? Will it run off the Syquest? If
this is the case, then do you have a Quantum hard drive? If so, you
probably have a buggy drive rom. I had to return a Quantum 105LPS for a
rom upgrade because of similar problems. Programs simply wouldn't even
load, mass copy was almost impossible. If you can run E off another drive
as well as from ram, then it's not the program, but probably the drive
itself, if it's a Quantum. If you have a Quantum 105, check the rom
version, then call Quantum and see if you can't field upgrade the rom.
I'm beginning to wonder if the problem is with the drive because the
program runs with from RAM, floppy, & SyQuest. The only problem is that
this is the only program that fails 100% of the time. Yes, I do have a
Quantum but it is 210 meg. I'll probably call Quantum just to see if there
are reported problems with that drive. I may do a complete backup and
reformat the drive (..shudder.. I HATE doing that to a drive that is
working in all other aspects.) The common point seems to be the drive
which is less than a year old but I still have to wonder why it is this
program that is failing. Thanks VERY much for the advice.
Leslie,
I haven't heard anything in particular about the Quantum 210, but
given that I have had major problems with both my 105LPS and my 240LPS,
both of which required upgrades. I had to install a new ROM in the 240,
and the 105 was sent back and replaced with a new one. The new one had a
newer ROM version. The 105 exhibited strange problems with programs that
were larger than 400k, they just wouldn't load. I would get "not an object
module" error, yet the program would load from any other device except the
105. When I did file backups I had to disable the cache on the drive or I
would get read/write errors. I flat could not do large mass copies from
the 105. It seems that the problem was with the drive's cache. You MIGHT
be a victim of some insidious problem related to the drive. You KNOW it's
not the program. Call Quantum's tech line — 408-944-0410 — and ask to
speak with Robert. He's Quantum's Amiga expert. He helped identify my
problems and solved them. It's worth a try.
I called Quantum before I read your message. One of their 800 numbers
was disconnected. The other 800 number was for RA #'s. They gave me two
other phone numbers, one was a 900 number (ARRGG! I HATE those THINGS!) and
the 408-944-0410 number. (I didn't know Quantum had an Amiga expert.) I
will probably call him sometime this week.
I left work early so that I could call MSS with my Amiga at hand. We
tried everything to get the program working and he made note of the problem
for the author of the revision to look at when he comes back from vacation.
It did work from the hard drive by removing the excellence! assignment and
canceling the dialog boxes, however, when I got off the phone and tried to
recreate the success but got another crash. I'll try Quantum and I suspect
there will be an update to excellence! 3.0 of some sort. I got the
impression there have been a few bug reports but nothing serious. Thanks
for the suggestion.
Leslie,
The 900 support number is a $5.00 charge, regardless of time on the
line, so it's not too bad a tariff. Better than those 2.50 per minute
ones! However, the direct number will only cost you the usual long
distance rate. Robert was very helpful to me and seems to know the Amiga
as well as the Quantums. I think the dialog boxes you refer to are the ones
asking for ProgDir? If so make an assign of ProgDir: to your Excellence!
directory. That will clear the dialogs. They come up to support the
appicon. I think that if you run Excellence from the workbench in it's own
directory, those dialog boxes won't show up, if they are the ones asking
for ProgDir.
Depending on the problem I guess the Quantum 900 number may not be too
bad. As for the dialog boxes go we were forcing them to appear by removing
the assignment. When excellence! loads it looks for the "excellence!:"
assignment for the "excellence!.ini" file to see if there is a special
configuration to load. When the box is canceled the program goes to
internal defaults. The first time everything went okay. The second time,
crasherino.
Leslie,
I wonder if it's because the old .ini file is not compatible with
the new Excellence. Try deleting that old .ini and starting over. If you
were using the old .ini, then it definitely won't work. I had the same
problem with the old .ini file and removed it.
I always used the default setting for excellence! so there was no old
ini file. Just in case there was an excellence!.ini file that had been
partial removed or for some reason invisible I renamed my old E! drawer
excellence!_OLD and reinstalled the program which generated a new drawer
and all new files. I looked through every related directory for an ".ini"
file and found nothing.
One other question…when formatting a hard drive the program asks for a
filing system. There is a FastFileSystem file in the L directory. Am I
supposed to use this file? I thought the FFS was in the 2.04 ROM.
Leslie,
I talked to Quantum a few days ago, and chatted with a friendly tech. He
indicated that there are no problems with the 210S (which I also have, with
a GVP controller), but that they have been having problems with the 120 and
the 240 (now fixed, according to the tech).
Jonathan
– via Whap!
Well, you should check you 105LPS. I had also some problems with mine, the
Dealer exchanged my 105LPS 2 times. Now the 3rd one is working o.k.. –
Horst –
Via Whap! from Germany
My hard drive is a Quantum 210, not a 105. I'll probably call Quantum
anyway.
Steven,
What version should us 1.05 users have, and what is QUantum's number?
Thanks.
wmc
Wayne,
I assume you mean '105' not '1.05' users? I don't know what the
current version is for the 105S, but the 105LPS is 3.1 (the label on the
ROM will have 3100.) Quantum ''s number is 408-944-0410 direct. Ask for
tech support and speak to Robert. If you have a 105S, then I don't know the
current rom version, but if you aren't having any trouble with the drive,
then don't worry about it. I never had any problems with my 105S. The LPS
drives may have certain problems which are related to the type of SCSI chip
used by the SCSI interface. There were some 'early' releases of the 105LPS
which had some firmware problems, but if you got one in the last 6 months
or so, you shouldn't have any problems.
Steven,
I got my 105lps (should have been more specific) about July, '91. I
haven't really seen any strangeness with it.
wmc
Wayne,
I would suspect that if you check the ROM on the drive it probably
is version 3.1. Some of the strange performance problems with the Quantums
has to do with the type of SCSI chip used on your SCSI interface. Most
interfaces use either a custom chip or a stock Western Digital chip which
uses the WD protocols. One of the WD chip protocols is what causes the
possible problems. If you don't have any problems, don't worry about it.
The problems seem, when the occur, to have some relation to the drive
cache.
Steve, Thanks for the info. I'm keeping your message and will check it out
next time I am under the hood.
wmc