CTRL-ALT-DEL garbage

[Robert Rasmussen]

On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Ken Becker wrote:

> Hey all you smart people,
> 
> On our Windows 3.11 Internet machines, we get garbled words when pressing
> CTRL-ALT-DEL the first time to end a task (pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL a 2nd
> time would then reboot).  I know what the screen is supposed to say about 
> an application that's not responding, but instead of the last line (for
> instance) saying "Press any key to continue" it says "PPeessaayykkyytt
> oottnnee".  
> 
> It does this all the time, even when there's no problem with any
> application.  Someone said it might be a memory problem.  Ideas, tips,
> fixes?

Ooh, I love a good puzzle! Here's my theory:

1. Ordinarily, Windows works in graphics mode (obviously), where each dot on
the screen is controllable. However, DOS works in character mode, where each
character is stored in screen memory (on the video card) as a 16-bit entity (8
bits for character, 8 bits for attribute/color).

2. In Win3.x, when you ctrl-alt-delete, it switches to character mode to give
you the message.

3. In PC hardware, memory in the range between 640k and 1meg can be addressed
by the processor either 8 bits at a time or 16 bits at a time. This memory is
on add-in cards, including the video card. 

4. Each add-in card can indicate to the processor whether it needs to be
addressed in 8-bit or 16-bit mode. However, this indication applies to a range
of addresses. The range from one card's memory can overlap the range from
another card's memory.

5. When the video card is not receiving data the way it wants to, you get
character doubling such as you've described. I can't recall whether it's
getting 8-bit but expecting 16-bit, or vice versa.

Therefore:

You have an add-in card in addition to your video card which has on-board
memory (perhaps a network card). That card and your video card should have
jumpers allowing you to set them for 8-bit or 16-bit operation. They need to
be set the same (although you might be able to sidestep the issue by setting
the network card to use a memory location further removed from the video
range; ie., a lower address).

The problem could show up in DOS operation. However, it might be triggered by
access to the network card, which might not happen until you're into WFW.

Please let me know if I won the kewpie doll.

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.
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