Selected OS/2 Warp APARs

Last Updated: 5th December, 1994
Since a discussion of the exact definition of what an APAR is and what it represents has been known to trigger month-long flame-fests and to start religious wars, I won't.... I'll simply say that the following represent summaries of problems reported to IBM and not immediately tossed in the RTFM bucket (;-).

Please note the use of the word "summaries". In the interests of saving space I have removed large chunks of each APAR listing. If you feel that what you are experiencing fits with one of the APARs, be sure to report it to IBM. Their copy of each APAR will be anywhere from two weeks to a month newer than my information, and you generally want the latest fix or workaround.

Why report it? Two reasons. First, to make sure you are added to the Interested Parties (IP) List for the problem so you will be informed when a fix or workaround becomes available. That's the short-term reason.

Second, to ensure that IBM is aware of how <many> users are experiencing the problem. This is the long-term reason.

True story: the OS/2 2.1 ServicePak (XR06200), as shipped, contained a nasty bug in the swap file handling logic that could keep your swap file from shrinking. Result? A swap file that grew, and grew, and... well, you get the picture. Descriptions of this and other problems were passed on by word of mouth and e-mail, and many users avoided installing XR06200 altogether (and thus avoided the problems).

IBM was slow in delivering a fix for that bug, and one of the reasons given was that it didn't appear to affect very many users... based on the number of <reported> problems.

Moral: if you need oil, squeak! Even if you're <not> a Wheel (;-).


APAR PJ15972  FDISK INDICATES A CORRUPTED HARDISK IF THERE ARE AIX
              PARTITIONS ON THE SECOND HARDRIVE(WARP)

FDISK issues a warning that the hardrive may be corrupt when it detects AIX partitions on the second hardrive. FDISK also will not allow partitions to be created on the second drive until a new partition record has been written.


APAR PJ15995  SELECTIVE INSTALL IN WARP RESULT IN SYS3175 IN OS2MM.DLL
              0001:0002930C

Executing install.exe results in SYS3175 in OS2MM.DLL from the up and running warp.


APAR PJ16019  EXCEPTION IN SINGLEQ$ OS2 V3.0(WARP) LOADING SVGA
              DRIVER. EIP VALUE SHOULD BE 00000971.

HARDWARE: Gateway 2000 (486-33 w. 24 MB RAM), Diamond Speedstar+, US Robotics Sportster 144, Sony CD33A controller, ProAudioSpectrum-16 Basic


APAR PJ16077  SYSTEM HANGS ON WARP DISK1 WITH A BLANK SCREEN, CURSOR
              BLINKING IN TOP LEFT.  IBMKBD.SYS BROKEN/REGRESSED.

APAR PJ16085  UNZIP PROBLEM INSTALLING "INTERNET CONNECTION FOR OS/2"
              PORTION OF THE WARP BONUSPACK FROM CDROM ON MITSUMI
              DRIVES.

[Ed. This is the "did not unzip correctly (rc=-51)" error.]


APAR PJ16086  WARP INSTALLATION HANGS ON DISK#1 WITH POWERGRAPH VL-24
              STB VIDEO CARD

WARP installation hangs on disk#1 if PowerGraph VL-24 STB video card is present in the system. It reads the installation disk fine, but on disk#1 it hangs just after displaying the WARP logo.

Suggested workaround: turn ON the wait state option via a hardware jumper.


APAR PJ16089  MACH32 DRIVER HANGS SYSTEM WHEN SWITCHING FROM DESKTOP
              TO WINOS/2 FULLSCREEN

Workaround: use the 8514 or the 28800/Mach8 driver


APAR PJ16092  WARP LEVEL IBMS1506 DRIVER WILL NOT WORK WITH CONNER
              CP3204F DRIVE AS SLAVE

When installing Warp using the IBMS1506 driver (at Warp level), the partition is created but system will not format the slave drive ("Format unsuccessful").

Workaround: use the the IBMS1506.ADD driver shipped with OS/2 2.11.


APAR PJ16105  TRAP 003 IN MACHINES WITH IDE CDROM WITH HEAVY SWAPPING
              UNDER WARP OS/2 VERSION 3.0

ATAPI CDROM Drives (IDE CD-ROM) in certain low memory situations may trigger a Trap 003 if there is heavy swapping, especially during Install.


APAR PJ16121  WARP AHA152X.ADD NOT WORKING WITH SOME CDROM'S.

If a /V is added to the BASEDEV=AHA152X.ADD line in CONFIG.SYS, the verbose message indicates that the driver does find the CD-ROM drive.

Workaround: use the OS2 2.11 version of AHA152X.ADD.


APAR PJ16131  CHANGING ARCHIVE LOCATION DOES NOT WORK UNDER OS/2 WARP:
              SYSTEM WILL ONLY BOOT TO PM WITH NO DESKTOP

Under OS/2 Warp (v3 XR03000) if the archive location is modified under the Desktop's Settings to any location other than the default directory of x:\OS2\ARCHIVES the archive choices cannot be accessed at the Alt+F1 menu.


APAR PJ16226  WARP IBM1FLPY.ADD HAS SLOW ACCESS ON (E)ISA FLOPPY
              CONTROLLERS

Warp floppy drive access is extremely slow on some ISA systems. Other symptoms may be SYS0039 errors prior to being able to access the drive. This happens during and after installation. Seen with Ultrastor 24F and Adaptec 2370C adapters, but others may be affected as well. In cases where access is extremely slow with the drive light on, it may appear to be a system hang.

Workarounds: swap adapter, or install a back-level copy of IBM1FLPY.ADD.


APAR PJ16229  COM.SYS WILL NOT LOAD IF SHARING IRQS.  USED TO WORK
              UNDER THE OS/2 2.X PRODUCT.

"SYS1201: device driver COM.SYS was not installed." message seen if IRQs are shared between the various COM (serial) ports.


APAR PJ16231  WARP FAILS TO INSTALL ON HARD DRIVES ON ADAPTEC 2940
              SCSI CARD.

Installing Warp will hang on Diskette 1 when installing on a hard drive that is attached to an Adaptec 2940 PCI SCSI adapter.


APAR PJ16241  WARP DPT20XX.ADD DRIVER DOES NOT RECOGNIZE CDROM.

The Warp OS2 3.0 DPT20XX.ADD driver does not recognize cdroms. This problem has been seen with the DPT 2021 SmartCache III and the 2011 SmartCache Plus, but may exist with all DPT cards. Typically the customer will report that the cdrom was working under 2.X, but after installing Warp, cdrom support was lost.

Workaround: use DPT20XX.ADD from OS2 2.X.


APAR PJ16247  WARP IS NOT UPDATING MOUSE.INI WHEN LAUNCHING ANY WINOS2
              SESSION

WIN-OS/2 fails to launch if there is no mouse type specified in MOUSE.INI


APAR PJ16278  INTERNET DIALER WHEN DOWNLOADING FROM ADVANTIS WILL NOT
              WORK.  CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE TIME OUTS, SLOW RESPONSE AND
              OTHER FAILURES

Slow response, time outs and other communication type failures when downloading the updated Internet Dialer program or other large files. Testing has shown that the problem is specific to the NS16450 (non-buffered) UART. Customers with NS16550 (buffered) UARTS do not experience this problem.

[Ed. BrandEx dual-"16550" IDE-SIO-PIO adapters were selling for $26-32 at the last computer show here in RIchmond vs. $12-16 for 16450-based adapters. Of course, I don't know how much longer it will be before even a 16-byte buffer is too small to prevent overruns... (;-)]


APAR PJ16282  DATA CORRUPTION DURING I/O ON HARD DRIVE CONNECTED TO
              PCI IDE PORT.

In OS/2 Warp, data corruption occurs during I/O on an IDE hard drive that is connected to a PCI port on a system with an AMI BIOS. Originally seen in OS2 2.11 but has also been reported in Warp. Symptoms are errors when doing a compare after an XCOPY or COPY, or random errors when doing a CHKDSK or running a compiler.

Workaround: disconnect the IDE drive from the PCI port and connect it to the ISA port.


This page is part of Frank McKenney's Warp Installation Notes, a major contribution to the Warp Pharmacy project.