Timed Hard Drive Parker/Screen Blanker V2.0 Copyright (c) 1987, 1988 by George Somers All Rights Reserved. Released as Shareware. Release History: V1.3 - Released on 08.20.87 V2.0 - Released on 06.06.88 =============== LICENSING NOTES =============== Use of this program as part of a commercial package can be negotiated by contacting: George Somers 33 Deerfield Lane Aberdeen, N.J. 07747 TPB, V2.0 is shareware. Although, earlier revisions were released as freeware, the unforseen necessity of continued user support of what was meant to be a one-shot programming effort has altered my original plans in this regard. The licensing fee for a single user running this software on a single machine is $15.00 (fifteen dollars, U.S.). Use of this software, beyond a testing period of one week, without registration of said software is in violation of this licensing agreement. The $15.00 license permits the user as many backup copies as she/he desires to maintain as long as those backup copies remain just that. Transmission of this program by any means is permitted and encouraged, and does not constitute a violation of this license. Using the program beyond the reasonable one week testing period, without registration with the author is prohibited, however. One restriction is placed upon the distribution of this software. The package must be distributed complete, and must be composed of the following elements: a) TPB.DOC - This documentation file b) TPB.COM - The executable program c) TEST.COM - A screen blank test program It is recommended, but not required, that the files be kept together by transmitting them in an archived format. In plainer English: feel free to experiment with TPB.COM for a week. After that week, continuing to use an unregistered copy is tantamount to moral bankruptcy. And be sure and talk to me, directly, before attempting to sell this software! Now, the last of the legal chatter. The information in this document, and the TPB software package, as a whole, is subject to change without notice. The developer assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document, or any errors that may be caused by the use of this software. End of lecture. ================ WHAT IS TPB.COM? ================ TPB.COM was originally written to please a few friends who owned monochrome monitors with long-retention phosphors that tended to burn-in screen images displayed for too long a time, and also owned hard drives that ran idle for significant periods of time (as is sometimes the case in Computer Bulletin Board System operation). They felt a lot happier knowing that the screen would blank, and that the fixed disk head would be shuttled to a parking zone, automatically, after a specifiable period of time. The earliest pre-release versions of this software (versions earlier than 1.2) were prone to surprising difficulties on a number of systems (especially "clone" machines!). With version 1.2, the difficulties appeared to have been resolved. However, shortly after 1.2's release, it came to my attention that certain video boards (such as the AT&T Display Enhancement Board) offered certain video modes that did not react very kindly to the blanking code in TPB.COM. Realizing that the myriad variety of display adapters in the PC world would remain largely untested with this software, I reacted a bit over- zealously. I released version 1.3, which, essentially, forbade the blanking of any screens outside of the traditional few supported by the standard Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA), the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), and the two indigenous high- resolution monochrome modes that are standard on some machines manufactured by Olivetti and distributed by companies including Xerox and AT&T. Since then, it has become apparent that such drastic measures were not necessary ... that permitting more user discretion would be the wiser course, particularly since the revisions to the blanking code prevented blanking on a number of machines that were blanking quite successfully with version 1.2. I also was aware of the fact that a number of users continued to run 1.2 instead of 1.3, because it worked just fine on their machines. In truth, the only evidence of difficulty in restoring the blanked screen correctly was exhibited by the aforementioned Display Enhancement Board used in some Olivetti-manufactured computers. So, in order to deal with this confirmed problem, blanking in version 2.0 has been forbidden only if the blanking will occur during the time that these DEB-specific modes are in effect. Otherwise, blanking will occur on many systems that were unaffected by the version 1.3 blanking code. This brings up another point regarding blanking. In its infinite wisdom, IBM decided that its Enhanced Graphics Adapter board did not need the video disable feature that was intrinsic to the MDA and CGA display adapters. Thus, a true-blue EGA will NOT blank at the selected time interval. In the hope that some of the many EGA boards manufactured by companies other than IBM have incorporated the necessary port (3B8 Hex [monochrome] or 3D8 Hex [color]) and bit decoding (bit 3 on both), I have structured the code in version 2.0 so that such (non-existent?) boards will blank, as well. I would appreciate hearing from any users who discover that 2.0 blanks their EGAs (or VGAs, for that matter)! To be fair to IBM, it is highly unlikely that any monitors usable with these high-resolution boards would require blanking to prevent screen burn-in. On the other hand, many users would, undoubtedly, still prefer that it was possible. Be assured that, although blanking may not be possible on your particular display board, the code will simply be ignored by the system, and nothing sinister will result from its presence! As a tiny sidebar, it might be noted that for the same reason that blanking is not possible, many (all?) EGA boards will not display high-intensity character backgrounds while in text mode ... the characters will blink instead. Included in the 2.0 release of TPB.COM is a program, named TEST.COM, that will test the blanking procedures employed by TPB.COM. Before running TPB, you may wish to run this test program to see if the blanker will be functional. It is self- explanatory in its operation. While the subject is difficulties, I have been informed by one user of TPB.COM (version 1.3) that he has difficulty using his floppy drive if TPB.COM is intialized from the floppy disk. I have tried to replicate his problem on a number of different systems, and have been unable to do so. If such problems become apparent to a user of version 2.0, my suggestion would be that the user discontinue the initialization of TPB.COM from the floppy drive. Given the bewildering array of personal computers, operating system versions, BIOS ROMs, hard drives, and floppy drives available in the PC world, it would not surprise me that there are incompatibility problems, as yet uncovered. Should you run into one (other than the EGA incompatibility, discussed above), document it, send it to me, and I will make an honest effort to resolve the problem in a future release. ============= USING TPB.COM ============= Typing TPB (and nothing more) at the DOS command line prompt (usually looks like this: >), will elicit the following response from the TPB.COM program: Starting Parameter Settings: /p9 --> Fixed Disk Heads will be parked after 9 idle minutes /b5 --> Video Screen will be blanked after 5 idle minutes /t ---> TPB determines video display card /v- --> Video activity will not affect Blank timer ERROR in command line specifications! Sample Syntax: TPB /p3/b1/v-/m ================================================================= | p --> Value in minutes (1-9) to wait before automatic park | |===============================================================| | b --> Value in minutes (1-9,-) to wait before automatic blank | |===============================================================| | v --> Switch (+,-) to reset blank timer on any video activity | |===============================================================| | m --> Forces TPB to recognize Monochrome board | | c --> Forces TPB to recognize Color Graphics Adaptor board | | t --> Allows TPB to select the display board | |===============================================================| | d --> Choose all default settings: /p9/b5/v-/t | |===============================================================| | s --> View current settings changing nothing | ================================================================= The error message results from the command line being incomplete. The various TPB.COM features will be explained separately. Note that any number of commands may be placed consecutively on a command line (separated by the "/" delimiter) except that one MUST be present (otherwise the previous display will appear). In addition, since the commands may be ganged on the command line, it is important to note that, insofar as many of the commands are mutually exclusive, the last command of a given type is the most significant. For instance, if you were to enter the following command line: TPB /p4/b3/p1 the parking timer would be set to go off every minute (/p1), not every 4 minutes (/p4), because it appears later on the command line. ========================= PARKING FIXED DRIVE HEADS ========================= To choose a time other than the default time of 9 minutes built into TPB, include the following parameter in the command line at the time you invoke the program: /p? where the question mark (?) represents a numeric digit ranging from one (1) to nine (9), inclusive. For instance: /p1 would cause the parking timer to be set to 1 minute. That is to say, one minute of disk inactivity will result in the immediate parking of the hard drive heads in a safe zone, a place where they are less likely to cause damage to data or programs stored on the drive, in the event of power failure or accidental jarring, etc. Once parked, the heads remain over the parking zone until the next time that the disk needs to be accessed, at which point, the heads are brought back from the parking zone to do whatever the operating system is asking of them. Once this activity has ceased, the parking timer once more is set in motion on a countdown to the next head parking. Note that all of this happens in the background and is utterly transparent to the user (depending on how vociferous a particular drive is, you may not even hear all of this happening ... only the access light will offer a clue about the process). The head parking feature can NOT be disabled. If you don't need THIS feature, why use TPB? ========================= BLANKING THE VIDEO SCREEN ========================= To choose a time other than the default time of 5 minutes built into TPB, include the following parameter in the command line at the time you invoke the program: /b? where the question mark (?) represents a numeric digit ranging from one (1) to nine (9), inclusive. For instance: /b1 would cause the blanking timer to be set to 1 minute. That is to say, one minute of keyboard inactivity will result in the immediate blanking of the video screen. Once blanked, the screen will remain dark until the next time that some key on the keyboard is pressed, at which point, the screen is turned on once more. After every keystroke, the blanking timer is once more set in motion on a countdown to the next screen blanking. The key that is the best candidate for reviving the screen is the shift key, since programs in effect at the time of the blanking might accept the keystroke and proceed merrily on their way. The shift key will restore the screen and (usually) be ignored by the primary application running at the time of the screen blank. Because there are times when some users would prefer to run the parker without blanking the screen, and since TPB.COM is designed to be reconfigurable once it is resident, provision has been made for the effective defeat of the blanking feature via two different (and mutually permissible options). First, there is the option of forcing TPB.COM to reset the blanking countdown timer (and turn on the screen, if it is already off) at each access to the video that occurs via DOS or BIOS (which is ordinarily, the predominant avenue for screen access). This is accomplished by adding the following to the TPB command parameter line: /v+ This video force feature can be defeated, once more by executing TPB.COM, again, and including the following in the command line: /v- Obviously, this last command is also the TPB default. Some bulletin board operators prefer to run with the "/v+" parameter, in order to have visual feedback about board use without actually touching any keys on the keyboard. The second option that TPB.COM offers for the effective disabling of the blanking feature is the 60-minute blanking timer. To choose the 60-minute timer, add the following to the TPB command line: /b- Note that this command should take the place of the one-to-nine minute syntax discussed above. This option, along with the video force option, in tandem, would cause the screen to blank only if the computer system has been idling without video activity and keyboard activity for one hour, which is enough, I should think. I balk at the idea of disabling the blanking feature, altogether. After all, this is TPB.COM, where the "B" stands for Blanking! Besides, with so many users disappointed that their EGAs do not support hardware blanking, it seems a little like salt in the wound to have even gone to this length to cripple what they so covetously desire. ====================== MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES ====================== Because some programs/BIOS ROMs/device drivers are not as impeccable about maintaining certain low-memory status flags as they should be, TPB.COM has provided the option of telling it what you know very well to be the case. Upon normal initialization, TPB determines information about the type of video adapter installed in the system. There are times, however when the evidence at its disposal is incomplete or in error. If you know your adapter to be a standard MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter) or CGA (Color Graphics Adapter), and TPB is failing to blank your screen, as it should, you can explicitly inform TPB of the type of adapter installed in your system. /m or /c The first (/m) tells TPB that your system features a monochrome adapter. The second (/c) tells TBP that the color graphics adapter is in charge. Should you be an inveterate tinkerer who chooses one or the other merely for sport, and then wishes to restore the original status (TPB choosing the display adaptor by its own means), call up TPB with the following command: /t Another feature that may prove to be handy is a command that restores the defaults of 5-minute blanking, 9-minute parking, no video force, and TPB sorting out the video adapter information. To re-establish these defaults at any time, summon up TPB with the following command: /d Finally, to determine the parameters in effect at any time, just call TPB up with the following command: /s TPB will immediately display the commands currently in effect. End of TPB.COM documentation.