G V P I N S T A L L A T I O N D I S K N O T E S ============================================================================= C O N T E N T S --------------- A. Introduction B. Files contained in the GVP drawer 1. Memory a. MemTest 2. SCSI a. GvpScsiCtrl b. FastPrep c. ExpertPrep 3. SystemInfo a. GvpInfo C. Getting Help ============================================================================= A. I N T R O D U C T I O N This GVP.Install disk contains a minimal Workbench 3.0 environment (enough to boot from). It should not be used as the main Workbench disk. The GVP.Install:GVP drawer drawer contain standard utilities provided to help diagnose any problems that might be encountered when additional RAM is added, or other system components are modified. An explanation of the drawers and files found in the GVP drawer can be found in the next section of this document. ============================================================================= B. T H E G V P D R A W E R This section of the document will describe the various utilities included on the GVP.Install disk. 1. The Memory drawer a. MemTest - This program is actually a small script that calls a memory test program to allocate all of the RAM currently in your system (and not in use) and performs tests on it. These tests include writing random values to a RAM address and then reading it back to compare with the original value. If any errors occur, it will report them to the screen. Since it is almost impossible to detect which chip on a SIMM module (or even which SIMM module) is at fault when an error is reported, attempts should be made to slowly reduce the amount of RAM in the system (and the tests re-run) to determine where the bad RAM chip may be. 2. The SCSI drawer a. GvpScsiCtrl - This program was written to modify the operating parameters of the gvpscsi.device driver while it is running; without requiring a reboot. It has the following template: GvpScsiCtrl (option) where option is one of the following: -m This option will force gvpscsi.device to re-examine the SCSI bus and mount any cartridges inserted into removable media drives that were recognized when the system was booted. -r This option will force gvpscsi.device to re-examine the SCSI bus for drives (of any type) that it did not recognize when the system booted (i.e. a drive that is slow to spin-up from a cold start). -s This option is similar to the one above, except that if it locates a removable media device without a cartridge inserted, it will not return control back to the parent CLI until a cartridge is mounted and spun-up. (This can be RUN >NIL: in the startup-sequence, and then whenever a cartridge is first inserted into the drive, it will immediately be recognized). (DCOFF|DCON) This option forces gvpscsi.device to recognize Disconnect/ReConnect requests from a device or tells it to ignore those requests, regardless of what the information in a Rigid Disk Block indicates. This is useful for drives that do not support the Disconnect/ReConnect functions, but do not have a Rigid Disk Block either (i.e. a streaming tape drive). b. FastPrep - This program is the Automatic Hard Drive Prep-and-Format program. It has an easy-to-use Intuition (point-and- click) interface, and performs most of the work for you. Please refer to the FastPrep User's Guide for more information. c. ExpertPrep - This program is a more advanced version of FastPrep and allows more control over the prepping and formatting operations for a hard drive. Care should be taken when using this program, because it allows you to change almost all of the parameters of the drive. While it does attempt to warn you when a potentially problematic operation is requested, it will let you proceed! 3. The SystemInfo drawer 1. GvpInfo - This utility provides in-depth information about the various expansion products installed into the Amiga, CPU and RAM operations, and other useful information that can be helpful to have handy when calling GVP's Technical Support department for help. ============================================================================= C. C A L L I N G G V P F O R T E C H N I C A L S U P P O R T GVP maintains a staff of Technical Support Representatives to answer calls and assist with installation and operation problems with GVP peripherals. The phone number is (215) 354-9495 and the fax number is (215) 337-9922. Please try to have your machine in front of you when you call, and be ready to provide answers to questions about motherboard revision, Kickstart and Workbench versions, GVP product versions, etc. A little extra research ahead of time will make it easier for the GVP Technicians to diagnose and solve your particular problem. =============================================================================