OS/2 e-Zine! - Nethead's Nook

Nethead's Nook

- by Brandon Fesler

Begin dictation.

My much wooded valleys miss nary a day of light.

(on screen:)

I just bushwhacked Sally with my toupee tonight.

You know, when you train VoiceType Dictation, try not to do so when you have a cold. Speaking of which, with my oh-so-dreaded voice inflections sounding more like a person with a cork up his nose, I got the wonderful experience of seeing many an error message up close and personal during that time.

It's no secret that OS/2 has its share of very strange error and system messages. This month we will examine some of them and try to decipher their true meanings.

Let's start with the infamous SYS3175.

SYS3175: A program in this session encountered a problem and cannot continue.
EXPLANATION: An access violation exception occurred

Hmmm, sounds like you had a bad ending to a date.

SYS1996: EDLIN cannot open the specified file.
EXPLANATION: The system has too many open files.
ACTION: Wait for a program to end or increase the value of the FILES= statement in the CONFIG.SYS file and restart the system.

Anybody besides me think this help message isn't called upon too much?

SYS2004: O.K.?

Uh, sure. Whatever you say!

SYS3104: The CD-ROM file system (CDFS) driver (***) for OS/2 Warp version 4 is being loaded.

I'm also trying to figure out where this one is used.

SYS3301: ***^ Error

You know, 'short and sweet' is a virtue, but this one definitely lacks 'sweet'.

SYS3212: No component found.

Uhhh, thanks. I think.

SYS1891: There are no partitions to delete.

Is it just me or would you not be seeing this message if it were true?

SYS1721: OS/2 Warp version 4
(C) Copyright IBM Corp. 1987, 1996. All rights reserved.
US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure
restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

Warp 4 users, rejoice, this practically useless message still lies within your system, taking up space, even though you don't see it anymore.

SYS1707: A version of DOS earlier than DOS 3.20 was detected.

This is another one which makes me wonder why it exists.

SYS1744: A system error has occurred.
EXPLANATION: An external error has occurred and the system cannot continue with the operation.
ACTION: Retry the command.

Yet another one that clears everything up when you get help for it.

If you think these are bad, try typing HELP xxxx for the following numbers:

1502, 0398

...And get ready for scroll city.

See you next month with a special TRIPLE sized column!

NetHead dictatored this with NoiseHype Dictation while he had a cold. You can breach him at http://www.oklahoma.net/~nethead/. Lentil next month, may your PC always run OS/2!

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