DS20E displayed output hangs, then continues...

[BSchlossmann]

I have seen this problem on two different DS20E's. An executing DCL procedure is creating a lot of output text to be displayed on the system console in a Decterm window. The output at times will just hang as if an CTRL S was entered. If you jiggle the mouse or enter a key stroke the output resumes and continues right where it paused. I'm hoping that someone else has had a similar experience and knows how to solve this problem. I haven't tried shrinking the window to an icon to see if it still hangs.

[Robert Gezelter]

BSchlossmann,

Version number would be helpful. A small demonstration program would also be helpful.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[BSchlossmann]

Both DS20E systems were running 7.3-2
The command procedure could be something like the following

$loop:
$ write sys$output -
"The quick brown fox..."
$ goto loop

[Bob Blunt]

There were and probably still are some issues with some of the graphics cards that will "work" on the DS20 family and on Alpha systems in general. The first recommendation would be to ensure that both the system, the operating system and DECwindows itself are at the most recent firmware and patch levels. Some of the problem can be attributed to the graphics card itself and it's interaction with the drivers and how they work displaying this sort of information. From what I recall this mode of operation brings out the worst in some graphics cards and how they interact when displaying this type data.

So knowing what type graphics card can help in the problem analysis as well as the versions of the DECwindows components you have on your system. There should be a command procedure that can be used to collect this sort of data but my Alpha is offline so I can't check for the name. You might search your system disk for "*decw*check*" or poke around in the DECwindows startup files for the filename. There's also the possibility that your graphics card is installed a non-optimal PCI slot so knowing the physical configuration of the PCI might also be handy info.

bob