Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site teneron.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!tektronix!reed!nsc-pdc!teneron!shanks From: shanks@teneron.UUCP (Dave Shanks) Newsgroups: net.micro.pc Subject: Re: Parity Check 1 message Message-ID: <185@teneron.UUCP> Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 12:26:18 EDT Article-I.D.: teneron.185 Posted: Tue Jul 9 12:26:18 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 14-Jul-85 09:22:49 EDT References: <205@geowhiz.UUCP> Reply-To: shanks@teneron.UUCP (Dave Shanks) Distribution: net Organization: Teneron Corp., Beaverton, OR Lines: 61 Summary: In article <205@geowhiz.UUCP> schuh@geowhiz.UUCP (David Schuh) writes: >Has anyone ever had this message pop up on your screen in about >20 point high letters. After which you must hard reboot? > > > PARITY CHECK 1I too have seen this problem recently when running a particular program. The program runs in one of the graphics modes and at the time of the parity check is writing characters out to the screen. The screen clears and the message "PARITY CHECK 1" appears at the upper left corner of the screen. The message is in characters appropriate for a 40x25 screen. No string follows the message to tell me where to look for a bad memory chip. My suspicion is that this program (which I copied off an RBBS) is doing something to cause the system to generate this message. Perhaps it is running through some interrupt vector which causes this message. The message always appears at the same place in the program. I do not believe that my memory chips are failing since neither the power on self test nor the advanced diagnostics can detect any problem with the computer's memory. My computer's configuration follows: IBM PC/XT (256K RAM on motherboard) Quadram Quadcolor board (an IBM Color Graphics Adapter look alike) AST Six Pack Plus (384K RAM, serial, parallel, clock, joystick) IBM Asynchronous Communications Adapter Any ideas as to how this message could be generated *without* an actual memory failure? Is it possible for software to cause a parity error (deliberately or accidently) without a hardware failure? Any suggestions will be appreciated. >What does this mysterious message mean, these crashes seem to happen >randomly, but I'm sure there related to something we can fix. >The grubby details: > > 1) PC with Enhanced color, 8087, 256Kb. > 2) Kinetic Systems Camac interface card (2925) > 3) 50 wire cable to the camac crate controler (also Kinetic) > >We are trying to narrow this thing down, it could possably be the >2925 card, but it seems unlikely as in operation it works beautifully. >However when I run the diagnostics provided with the pc, and enter >0 for run diagnostics, the disk just spins and spins, but if I take the >card out, Hunky Dory, any ideas? > >I thougth that the location was bad and we were getting rf interference, >but that does not seem to be it. Could glitches comming through the >cable cause this kind of crash? > -- Dave Shanks ..!tektronix!reed!teneron!shanks Teneron Corp. 6700 SW 105th Suite 200 Beaverton, OR 97005 (503) 646-1599