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- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
- Path: sparky!uunet!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!wcl
- From: wcl@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Wayne Long)
- Subject: Keyboard problems now fixed - w. current AMI Keyboard BIOS
- Message-ID: <1992Jul21.161715.2549@oakhill.sps.mot.com>
- Summary: AMI Keyboard BIOS revision -KF fixes OS2 2.0 keyboard problems.
- Keywords: BIOS, bios, keyboard, problem, fixes, lockup
- Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin, Texas
- Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 16:17:15 GMT
- Lines: 61
-
-
- I have a 386/33 MHz Aramus motherboard with the standard adapter
- cards (in terms of ports and IRQs), enhanced 101 keyboard, Logitech
- serial mouse installed on COM1, AMI ROM BIOS dated 4/09/90 and AMI
- Keyboard BIOS revision -KD. Upon installing OS2 2.0 I encountered
- the following unresolvable (through config.sys/driver changes) problems:
-
-
- 1. Pressing CAPSLOCK or NUMLOCK would cause loss of keyboard control.
- (defined as total loss of character entry capability.) Mouse
- capability remained.
-
- 2. Upon entering into a WIN-OS2 session, keyboard control would be
- lost. Again, no effect on the mouse. Setting KBD_RATE_LOCK
- to on would prevent this particular problem.
-
- 3. Selecting Special Needs under the keyboard setup icon
- intermittantly locked the machine. In general, opening the
- keyboard settings icon window would be sluggish.
-
- 4. There may have been other problems but these were enough to
- cause me to wrap up OS2 and put it in a corner until a perm-
- anent solution could be found.
-
-
- It turned out that the permanent solution to these (and perhaps other latent)
- keyboard problems in OS2 2.0 was to replace my existing Keyboard BIOS
- with the latest revision (-KF). Updating the AMI ROM BIOS was NOT necessary
- (which is good since it is supposedly customized for my motherboard).
-
- If you are experiencing keyboard problems with OS2 2.0, and you have
- AMI BIOS, and you've checked all your H/W ports and IRQs for conflicts,
- and you're sure you've got the correct OS2 config.sys drivers installed
- then you may have an AMI BIOS (ROM and/or Keyboard) incompatibility with
- OS2. Please note that incompatibility symptoms may be motherboard/hard
- drive/BIOS date dependent as the flavor or required BIOS differs depending
- on these factors.
-
- If you have AMI BIOS and haven't experienced a single (signifcant/un-
- resolvable) problem with OS2 (particularly keyboard-related), relax,
- you're in the majority. You may thank IBM's 30,000 hours of testing.
- But be sympathetic to those few who do have problems - they're real.
-
- I posted a copy of Washburn & Co.'s AMI compatibility guidelines on
- the net last week. If you are having keyboard problems, think it
- may be your BIOS, and didn't catch the post, I'll email a copy of it
- or you can call Washburn & Co direct at (716) 248-3627. (Note: I'm
- not pushing Washburn, just don't know where else to get need upgrades.)
-
- Otherwise, if you're just curious, the info should be making its way
- into the FAQ. I also uploaded it to ftp-os2.nmsu.edu in the /pub/downloads
- directory (current filename: AMI_BIOS_Guidelines).
-
-
- Nice to back on OS2 ...
-
- Wayne.
- --
- Wayne Long, (512) 891-4649 Fax (512) 891-3818
- 6501 William Cannon Dr. W, Austin, TX 78735-8598
- cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!wcl -or- uucp!wcl@oakhill.sps.mot.com
-