AST RESEARCH, INC. TECHNICAL BULLETIN # 0941 6-24-94
ASCENTIA 900N AND WINDOWS FOR WORKGROUPS
PROBLEM: The Ascentia 900N system keyboard may hang or fail to operate
properly under Windows for Workgroups, version 3.11.
CAUSE: The problem is caused by the way the keyboard controller
circuit is implemented on some systems.
SYSTEMS
AFFECTED: AST REVISION
PART NUMBER DESCRIPTION LEVEL
501299-2XX ASCENTIA 900N 4/50 CS10 All
501300-3XX ASCENTIA 900N 4/50 CT9 All
501302-2XX ASCENTIA 900N 4/75 CS10 All
501304-3XX ASCENTIA 900N 4/75 CT10 All
SOLUTION: Install a separate Keyboard Driver which ignores the extra
interrupt signals generated by these keyboard controllers.
Windows normally uses an internal "Virtual Keyboard Driver" or
VKD.
To install the new VKD.386 driver do the following:
1. Obtain a copy of VKD.386 from the systems area of the AST
BBS.
2. Exit Windows.
3. Copy the file VKD.386 to your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.
For example,
COPY A:\VKD.386 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
4. Change to the Windows directory.
CD \WINDOWS
5. Using the MS-DOS EDIT command, or any other TEXT editor,
search for the following line: KEYBOARD=*VKD. While in
MS-DOS EDIT, press , and type in "*VKD" to find it.
Change this line to:
KEYBOARD=VKD.386
6. Save the SYSTEM.INI file. In MS-DOS EDIT, press
,,,,,.
7. Reboot and run Windows for Workgroups 3.11. The keyboard
will now operate properly.