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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Non-windows computer does BL3
  • Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 04:34:55 +0000 (UTC)

A web search suggested many causes of a divide overflow error, the most plausible of which seem to be:

RAM error - reseat the chip (it must have been updated since this is a 133MHz computer with 96MB RAM) and run a memory tester

BIOS error - related to having lost the time and date. None of my guesses at how to get into CMOS setup worked (F1, F2, del) but someone else suggested F10 for Compaq.

Does Win98 setup perform a more thorough memory test than the boot sequence? Other people had the error message trying to boot DOS.
Does linux check RAM at all when booting?

I don't want BL3 to run into the same problems when it tries to use more than the first few MB RAM.


The less plausible explanations of this error message included clock speeds over 233MHz, TSRs started from autoexec.bat and config.sys which we do not have either of, and memory conflict if using the wrong version of DOS, also corrupt program - which is possible, I guess. For older DOS programs, they suggested slowing down the cpu speed with mo'slo.

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005, sindi keesan wrote:

A friend brought over a laptop 133MHz Compaq with 92MB RAM that was given
to him by someone because someone else 'did not like it' in their office.

He said it would not boot. It would not boot from hard drive (got to
that point and got stuck). It booted from floppy disk and we put on MS
DOS 7.1 from a Win98 boot disk. It had been reformatted and no OS put on.
We put on some DOS utils. Syschk worked fine.

He forgot to bring the CD-ROM drive and the ethernet dongle, so we tried
to copy via llpro from a CD-ROM drive in a desktop computer, which kept
hanging so we copied the files to the hard drive, and then via parallel
cable, for an hour or two. About 200MB of installation files. WORD 97
would be in addition to this.

I tried to install Win98.

cd win98
setup
Enter (to continue):

'Your program caused a divide overflow.'

Lots of little green squares with 7 in them, blue squares followed by :,
and one case of a blue followed by a green with Q in it.

What might be causing this problem when Windows starts to check the system
hardware and/or software?

So I booted 2-floppy BL3 which works fine even in X, and then showed him
Abiword in BL3 on my computer and he saved the same file as .doc and .rtf
(they both came out as rtf format - has anyone else tried to save as WORD
.doc?) and said he would be happy with this setup.

I am going to attempt to transfer my setup via parallel port zip drive, as
a 50MB fs.img file, to run from a DOS partition, since he has no other
planned use for this computer besides wordprocessing. He is used to
moving files between WORD for PC and WORD for Mac as rtf (since the
conversion program for WORD to WORD won't work right).

Why would linux work perfectly on a computer where Win98 crashes while
checking the hardware? It would not even warm reboot. We tried numerous
times, powering off, waiting, powering on..... On several other computers
Windows works okay but linux has assorted problems.

Might it be a corrupt setup.exe? He went home, but I want to be prepared
for the next time.

The computer we copied via also crashed with color squares when I tried to
exit llpro, which it has never done before. Error messages listed various
registers. This is the one where I tried to use pcmcia ethernet on a
desktop in ISA-controller slot. I can't imagine it is a related problem.

keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org




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