**************************************************************************** The following reflects our BEST GUESS at what may have caused the particular error. This document is divided into the following sections: SPECIFIC ERROR CODES GENERAL INSTALLATION/RUN PROBLEMS **************************************************************************** SPECIFIC ERROR CODES 01-09-1996 11:17:29: 76 in line 220 of ML5-EDIT:1.0.05 While attempting to save a setup, an illegal DOS filename was typed in. 01-09-1996 11:35:04: GP1:1.0.05 An attempt was made to run a report on, or handicap a card that was not correctly translated. 01-14-1996 04:51:07: 53 in line 715 of P5MAIN:1.0.05 53 is "File Not Found", in this case while attempting to translate a card. 02-12-1996 19:50:40: 88 in line 1170 of P5TRANS:1.0.05 02-12-1996 19:56:56: 54 in line 1170 of P5TRANS:1.0.05 Card database could not be opened. Re-boot the computer (cold boot) , delete MLCARD.DB5 and try again. 02-12-1996 19:56:46: 54 in line 2710 of P5MAIN:1.0.05 Cold-boot the computer. Try again. **************************************************************************** GENERAL INSTALLATION/RUN PROBLEMS 06-25-96 ---- Cannot run Plus V at all, or locks up while parsing or archiving, etc. As stated in the User Manual, Plus V was designed to run on today's modern computers. Specifically, it requires more resources (in a nutshell, available memory, with emphasis on available) than Plus III did. Unfortunately, with the wide variation in PC configurations, it is difficult to determine just where to draw the line. Therefore, we have written up the following Test Procedure, which we hope will assist you in diagnosing the problem. We have performed the following on several computers running MS-DOS 6.2, and MS-DOS 6.22 (the most recent version as of this writing.) If you are running a different version of DOS, then your results may vary. You should follow this procedure to the letter, or your results may vary. If you follow the procedure to the letter, then, Plus V should run correctly on your computer. If your "usual handicapping routine", deviates from the procedure, then that is another story. By following this procedure verbatim, we are trying to establish a common baseline. 1. Prepare Plus V for the test. a) Ensure that you have installed the latest version of Plus V. (This is ALWAYS available from our Web site.) b) Patches, as well as new versions obtained from our Web site, should ALWAYS be installed OVER an existing version. (I.e., you should not delete an existing subdirectory and start from scratch, because you will need information, available ONLY on the floppy disk that BRIS originally supplied you.) b) After making backups, delete the following files: MLCARD.DB5 and MLDRFCND.DB5. c) Ensure that you have version 2.04G of PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP.EXE installed on your system. (Earlier versions will not work reliably, and, as of this date, any later versions are actually viruses.) d) Copy both PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP.EXE into the subdirectory where PLUS V is installed. (You may have these located elsewhere on your computer, but for test purposes they MUST exist in Plus V's subdirectory.) e) Run the "Setup" menu choice from P5MAIN.EXE. Set both "paths" to your Plus V subdirectory. (For most folks, this means "C:\PLUS5\", no quotes.) f) Copy a card that you have downloaded in ZIP format to your Plus V directory. (If you do not select ZIP when you download, then you are paying too much.) 2. Format a "virgin" DOS Boot diskette. a) From a DOS prompt, and with a formatted floppy in your "A:" drive, type: "SYS A:". b) Test that you can boot from the floppy by turning off your computer, and then turning it on with the new boot floppy in drive "A:". NOTE: Some computer BIOS's are set to boot from the hard drive, BEFORE trying to boot from the floppy. If your BIOS is set up this way, then you will have to change it before attempting this test. If you have successfully booted from the floppy drive, then only built-in DOS commands will work. I.e., you won't be able to run "XCOPY", run Windows, or do much of anything, because your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and CONFIG.SYS file were not executed when booting from the floppy disk. This is what we want. 3. Turn off your computer again and wait 10 seconds. 4. Insert the Boot Floppy in your A: drive, and turn the computer on. 5. Assuming you boot correctly, "CD" or "CHDIR" into your Plus V directory. (I.e., "CD C:\PLUS5"). 6. Start P5MAIN by typing "P5MAIN". 7. Leave the Menu Highlight on "Zipped Files", and hit Enter. 8. Type "N" in response to the "CRD file" question. 9. Use the Keyboard arrow keys to select the download file if there is more than one. Highlight it and hit Enter. 10. You should now successfully be Translating. Please note that since we booted from the "virgin" floppy, this will probably take a long, long time, because disk cache was not enabled. If you do not see any screen activity after 10-15 minutes (and no disk light activity), then, something went wrong. If everything worked OK, you will hear a satisfying "beep" and be returned to the Main Menu. If the Translate completed, then continue... 11. Using the keyboard arrow keys, Cursor over to "Tools", then select "Archive". You should see the "Archiving Today's Card" popup. Give this 10-15 minutes as well, before you decide that it has locked up. When the archive is successfully completed, however, you will be returned to the Main Menu. This tests your "PKZIP.EXE" connection. 12. In P5MAIN, select "Zipped Files", then enter "Y" to the "CRD" question. This tests your "PKUNZIP.EXE" connection. 13. Select "Reports", then "Pacegraph", and just hit Enter for race number, to select ALL races. This is the worst-case test of the reporting modules. SUMMARY We have performed the tests above, booting from virgin DOS 6.2 and virgin DOS 6.22. In our tests, we used the largest download files that we have available-- the Triple Crown files, which in our case, includes simulcasts from Southern California, the Crown track, in addition to our local races. We ran the tests on our two weakest computers: a 486SX-40 (Cyrix) and an ancient laptop with a decrepit 36SX-16. Both computers had only 4MB of ram installed, (although the results would have been the same with 1MB.) Yes, the tests ran dreadfully slow, but they succeeded. The laptop was further hampered by having a disk compression program installed. We believe that the Procedure should be successful on any pure DOS-compatible system. If you can successfully run the above on a "virgin" MS-DOS, then your problems are related to the vagaries of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. In addition to running the tests on the "virgin" DOS configurations, we've included our standard configurations for these machines. Also included is the configuration for our primary Windows computer-- the one that Plus V was developed on. (NOTE: our primary DOS/Win 3.1 computer uses "Netroom 3.05" to manage upper memory. This is an EXCELLENT program.) (NOTE: Extraneous "SET" and "PATH" commands were deleted.) *** PRIMARY COMPUTER AUTOEXEC.BAT *** C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.EXE -SCC01 -M5280 C:\NETROOM\SETCFG.COM -F100 SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6 SET SOUND=C:\SB16 C:\SB16\SB16SET /M:220 /VOC:220 /CD:220 /MIDI:220 /LINE:220 /TREBLE:0 C:\SB16\SBCONFIG.EXE /S @ECHO OFF @C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.EXE -SCC01 -M17120 C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE /l:510 /f:5100 C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.EXE -C -ACC01,45488 C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.EXE -SCC01 -M24096 C:\DOS\mode LPT1: RETRY=P PROMPT $p$g PATH C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\BIN; (other stuff edited) C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.EXE -SCC01 -M56928 C:\DOS\mouse.COM C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.EXE -SCC01 -M6384 C:\DOS\doskey.COM C:\DOS\chkdsk set TEMP=c:\windows\TEMP set TMP=c:\windows\TEMP c:\netroom\stretch C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.EXE -SCC01 -M27952 MSCDEX /D:QLCDROM *** PRIMARY COMPUTER CONFIG.SYS *** DEVICE=C:\NETROOM\RM386.EXE AUTO NOF X=B000-B7FF DEVICE=C:\NETROOM\SYSCLOAK.EXE DEVICE=C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.SYS -O DOS=HIGH DOS=UMB BUFFERS=10,0 FILES=40 LASTDRIVE=E FCBS=16,0 DEVICE=C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.SYS -SCC01 -M13728 C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE SHELL=C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.EXE -SCC01 -M58741 -E C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /E:2048 /p DEVICE=C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.SYS -SCC01 -M13632 C:\QLOGIC\QL41DOS.SYS DEVICE=C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.SYS -SCC01 -M3216 C:\QLOGIC\QL00ASPI.SYS DEVICE=C:\NETROOM\XLOAD.SYS -SCC01 -M5568 C:\QLOGIC\QL00CDRM.SYS /D:QLCDROM *** Cyrix 486/40 with 4MB Ram AUTOEXEC.BAT *** REM This has been our voicemail computer for years.... @loadhigh C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE /l:500 /f:5100 set blaster=A220 D1 I5 T3 LH /L:0;1,43952 /S C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE path c:\windows;c:\dos;c:\bin SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP LH /L:1,6384 doskey *** Cyrix 486/40 with 4MB Ram CONFIG.SYS *** DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS BUFFERS=15,0 FILES=40 DOS=UMB LASTDRIVE=e FCBS=4,0 STACKS=9,256 shell = c:\command.com c:\ /p /e:1024 *** Cheesey 386SX6/16 Laptop with 4MB Ram AUTOEXEC.BAT *** LH /L:0;1,45488 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE prompt $p$g PATH C:\WINWORD;C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;C:\QEMM;C:\;C:\COMMAND SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP LH /L:1,6384 C:\DOS\DOSKEY LH /L:1,13984 C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE /l:500 /f:5100 *** Cheesey 386SX6/16 Laptop with 4MB Ram CONFIG.SYS *** DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS BUFFERS=10,0 FILES=20 DOS=UMB LASTDRIVE=E FCBS=16,8 DEVICEHIGH /L:1,12048 =C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE DEVICEHIGH /L:1,39232 =C:\DOS\DBLSPACE.SYS /MOVE SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /e:1024 /p DOS=HIGH DEVICE=C:\DOS\DBLSPACE.SYS /MOVE STACKS=9,256 6-28-96 Sporadic problems running under Windows This tip has nothing, really, to do with Plus V, but it is such a great tip, we thought we'd pass it on. Many people who experience sporadic crashes and related problems running Windows 3.x stand a good chance of eliminating them forever, by setting putting the following lines in the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI: MAxBPs=768 ****************************************************************************