CompuServe Thread

#Magazine Rack Error

3 messages in this thread
#38436From: Craig WernerJan 29, 1993 5:14 AM
Hello, everyone. I am using a Magnavox CDD-461 external CD-ROM drive with a 386SX/16 MS-DOS machine running DOS 5.0 with about 606K available memory after DOS. When I load Magazine Rack from Information Access Company, I often get the error message "Packed file is corruptD," or often my machine simply hangs. Perhaps once out of every five times, the program loads successfully. I have tried loading MAGRACK from the CD-ROM drive and from my hard drive, both with the same dissatisfying results. Using the DOS command LOADFIX also does not alter the situation. I suspect a defective disk, but does anyone have any other ideas as to what may be going wrong? Unfortunately, Information Access has discontinued the product and is no longer offering support. Thanks for any and all help. Craig Werner
#38535From: Ran Talbott [ISSUES]Jan 30, 1993 1:26 AM
Craig, I've heard lots of complaints from people over the last couple of years about various programs choking when loaded into the lowest 64K of RAM. I'd suggest trying to load something that'll waste 30K or so of RAM, so that the MagRack program loads above 64K. Almost any TSR will do, as long as it doesn't do something weird that clashes with another TSR. Grab a public domain notepad, or something like that, from one of the forum libraries (do a search with the IBM File Finder on a key of "TSR", and look for something innocuous). It's not an elegant solution, granted, but it beats not being able to use MagRack (which is working fine on my DR_DOS 5.0 system, btw. But SideKick takes up about 70K or so of low RAM). Ran
#38619From: Craig WernerJan 30, 1993 11:26 PM
Ran, thanks for your message in which you suggest I load an innocuous TSR into the firs 64K of RAM in an attempt to eliminate the "Packed file is corruptD" DOS message when running MAGRACK. I'll try it. BTW, I located another copy of the software yesterday, and it behaves in the same way as mine. This exonerates the CD-ROM itself and makes me look for a possible system incompatibility. Thanks again. Craig