[Xitami] devices problem

[Ewen McNeill]

In message <004401c190ba$20419410$1564a8c0@troy.ozin.foo>, "Jason Ozin at Techni
ca Solutions" writes:
> > Blargh! Same with a NT 4.0 box!!! (at least the /aux does)
> > Haven't tried com1 yet -- not sure if I want to....
>
>Funny I have no problems with aux, just LPT1. What is aux anyway? 

I was going to ask if you had problems with AUX. 

AUX is the "auxillary device", dating _way_ back to the CP/M days.
It's basically another name for one of the COM ports these days --
that people have problems with AUX and COM1 does not surprise me at all.

I suspect that:
- anyone who has a problem with lpt1 will have the problem with prn, 
  and vice versa
- anyone who has a problem with aux will have a problem with com1 (or 
  perhaps one of the other com ports)

(If anyone has problems with only one of prn/lpt1 or only one of
com1/aux please speak up!)

And as mentioned before, I suspect the issue is now restricted to
situations where the device is actually present (eg, a printer
installed).  

If someone who has the problem with prn or lpt1 could try uninstalling
the printer, and see if the problem goes away, and then try installing
the printer again, and see if the problem returns, that would probably
confirm this part of the hypothesis.

The other interesting factor from your detailed post is that it doesn't
happen every time, only when you've hit refresh a lot.  That screams
"race condition" to me -- ie, that it's only when the access happens at
an "inconvenient" time that the problem occurs.

I've got a vague hunch now as to where the race condition might be _if_ the
problem goes away when the printer is uninstalled and comes back when it
is installed.  (Figuring out how to fix it will be a little more tricky,
but I've got one possibility to try there.  Of course the fact that I
can't reproduce this doesn't make it any easier...)

Ewen

-- 
Ewen McNeill, Technical Consultant, iMatix Corporation  www.imatix.com