Version 1.10
Contents Revision 1.10b
1.1 Sound Boards
Using a sound board with CBW may require special consideration to avoid interrupt and DMA conflicts. This is particularly true when dealing with the Trakker tape drive unit. Most sound boards use an interrupt that corresponds with a parallel port. If a Trakker unit is connected to one of these parallel ports, you may have poor sound quality. To correct this, choose an interrupt for the sound board that is different from your parallel port.
Some sound boards install device drivers that conflict with
CBW's device driver, CMSWTAPE.386. These sound board device
drivers install MIDI support. If you are experiencing
problems with CBW, you might have a conflict with these MIDI
drivers. To correct this, you can remove the MIDI support
from the Drivers entry in the Control Panel in windows. See
your sound board's documentation for instructions.
1.2 Fax Modems and Voice Mail Systems.
Some fax modems and voice mail systems install device drivers under windows that may conflict with CBW. Symptoms of this problem include having the tape backup software produce an error message when a fax or voice mail is received. To correct this, disable the fax or voice mail reception either through the control panel or through the control program for your board.
1.3 Third Party Windows Backup Software.
Most third party backup programs for windows install a device driver that conflicts with the CBW driver. If any other backup software has been installed through windows, you may need to remove these drivers before CBW will operate. To do this, you will need to edit the SYSTEM.INI file in your windows directory. Under the section [386enh] you should see several lines that read 'DEVICE='. If any of these lines reference 'VFINTD.386', 'CPBVXD.386', or 'FASTBACK.386', you will need to add a semicolon to the beginning of these lines.
2.0 Troubleshooting.
2.1 General Protection Fault.
In some situations, CBW may fail with a message indicating that a General Protection Fault was detected. In situations like this, the most common cause is having a parameter of the EMM386.EXE device driver not properly set. To check for this situation, edit the CONFIG.SYS file and place a remark, REM before the DEVICE=EMM386.EXE line. Next, reboot the computer and retry the CBW operation. If the error no longer occurs,
it is an indication that one of the parameters of the EMM386.EXE line is conflicting. Try removing parameters one at a time until the conflicting parameter is located. The Dos manual contains an explanation of the EMM386.EXE and its parameters.
If the error persists, or if you do not have a line with
EMM386.EXE, then we need to check for a device driver conflict
as stated in section 1.3. Occasionally device driver
conflicts can cause a General Protection Fault.
3.0 Performance Tips.
3.1 Video Drivers
Some systems may experience slow backup speeds. On these systems, improvements may be gained by changing from the default VGA driver to the driver supplied with the video board. To determine if this is the problem, start a backup, then minimize the CBW window. It is normal for backup speeds to improve somewhat with CBW minimized, however, if the results are extreme it may be necessary to change the video driver. See the video board manual for instructions.
3.2 Operating CBW in the background.
While CBW is capable of running on a system in the background, performance may decline with each additional application running. Memory is used by each application which could cause CBW to fail with an out of memory error.
When running a backup operation in the background, some open
files may not back up.
For fastest performance and to assure a complete backup, you
may wish to operate CBW as the only application open on the
system.
3.3 Memory and Resources.
If you do not have sufficient memory or resources to execute CBW you will receive an error message. However, having less than 2.5M of available memory or less than 70% resources will result in slow performance. If this is the case, you can improve performance by making more memory or more resources available to CBW.
To check your available memory, choose Help from the Program
Manager, and then choose About Program Manager. This screen
will provide you with the amount of memory and system
resources available.
To make more memory and resources available, you may need to
close other applications and minimize Program Manager.
4.0 Considerations for Network Users.
Generally CBW works transparently with Windows for Workgroups, NetWare Lite and Lantastic, however, with the current version of CBW, specific file attributes, bindery and privilege information may not be saved.
In the Windows For Workgroups environment, if a "Sharing
Buffers Exceeded" message occurs try the following changes:
In the [386enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI increase
NetHeapSize= to 48 and DMABufferSize= to 064. If the error
still occurs you may need to de-select the enable Share Option
in Network under Control Panel.
5.0 General Trouble-Shooting Hints.
SOFTWARE.
If you are not able to resolve an error after following the suggestions given on the error screen, it is recommended to do the following:
1. Re-try the operation, look for consistent results.
2. Try another tape. Make sure your tapes are on the
Approved Tapes List in the manual or use a Colorado Memory Systems brand tape for your drive.
3. Check the hard drive for lost clusters, bad sectors, and fragmentation. If errors occur, correct by using 'CHKDSK /F'. See your Dos manual for more information.
4. Close down all other applications, remove items from your startup group and remark items out of the and run= lines in the WIN.INI file.
5. Re-boot with a clean AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. It is recommended that this be done from a bootable floppy diskette.
If you have tried the above steps and the software still fails it may be necessary to load a basic SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI for testing purposes. Your Windows manual explains the process needed to modify these system files. Be sure to make backup copies of these files before making changes.
HARDWARE.
If the drive does not respond when you try to access it with the software, do the following:
- Remove the tape from the drive and examine it. If the tape is unspooled, refer to the drive cleaning instructions in the manual.
- Close down all programs and turn the power off on the computer. If your tape drive plugs directly into the wall outlet, disconnect it from the wall outlet, wait a few seconds and then re-connect it.
- Turn the power back on.
- Place a tape in the drive and look to see if the LED is functioning normally. The tape drive LED should not be on after the tape stops spinning.