Admiral - V1N4



'''I have a program that is causing OS/2 to trap at the same point each time. I would like to be able to tell the program's manufacturer more about the problem than just the screenful of codes I see after the trap. How can I do this?''' By running CREATEDD you can create a set of Dump Diskettes that you can use to transfer a snapshot of the memory in your computer at the time of the trap. Developers can then use this information to determine what went wrong. You'll need a disk for about every 1-2 MB of RAM in your computer. The next time you see the trap, press CTRL-ALT and hit the NUMLOCK key twice. The system will then prompt you for the first disk to dump to, and continue prompting until the dump is complete. You can then send these disks to IBM or the software's developer to help them understand the circumstances under which OS/2 trapped.

By the way, this is also a good trick for people who have no intention of dumping the contents of their memory upon a system trap, but want to be able to shut down the file system properly before resetting the computer. Often when you press the above sequence to start the dump, once the system prompts you for the first disk you can press CTRL-ALT-DELETE and reset the computer safely while shutting down the file system.

'''I made a mistake in CONFIG.SYS and now my system won't boot. I can boot the system from the installation disks and press F3 to exit to a command prompt, but I can't use either the OS/2 System Editor or the Enhanced Editor because they are both graphical programs. Help!''' Once again the answer lies in an unknown and undocumented utility called TEDIT, which is OS/2's built in text-mode editor. Exit to your OS/2 prompt and type TEDIT C:\CONFIG.SYS. The editor is a little strange having been fathered by people used to IBM's mainframe keystrokes, but you'll get the hang of it and fix your problem quickly. If you need help, press F1. To exit help, press F3 - that is not real obvious.