THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700


S U M M A R Y


DIARY: May 18, 1995 12:49 PM Thursday; Rod Welch

Called IBM re os2 performance by adjusting Settings.

1...Summary/Objective
....Too Much Information No Knowledge
........Communication Metrics
2...Scope of problem
3...DOS Apps Fail under OS2???
4...DOS Setting Changes
5...Config Changes
.....Apparent Solution
6...Changes Failed
7...BIOS and RAM Cache
8...Further Analysis by IBM Level 2 is Needed


..............
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CONTACTS 
0201 - IBM OS/2                           407 443 2000
020101 - Mr. Frank Tokay; Performance, Level 1
020102 - Technical Support   =800 992 4777 fax 407 443 6940  407 994 5544
0202 - IBM OS/2                           407 443 2000
020201 - Mr. Ashley Gilliam; Performance Level 1 Supervisor
020202 - Technical Support   =800 992 4777 fax 407 443 6940  407 994 5544

SUBJECTS
Time - Too Busy Being Busy
Information Gridlock, Overcome
Knowledge, Not Information and Data
Noisy, It's too, New World Order
Obstacles to Leadership, Ovecoming
Organization, Structure for Information,
Organization of SDS Creates Knowledge Space
Information Highway New Environment Needs
Noisy, It's too
Story Brain Stores Linkages of Data to Produce Knowledge, Wisdom, Vis

1212 -    ..
1213 - Summary/Objective
1214 -
121401 - Followed up work at ref SDS 17 line 82, ref SDS 15 line 51, 
121402 - line 35, and at ref SDS 13 line 123.
121403 -
121404 - Got the thing set up for call back tomorrow by level 2.  Tried some
121405 - things that did not work.
121406 -
1215 -
1216 -
1217 - Progress
1218 -
121801 - Central issue is the impact on os2 of using DOS with the settings at
121802 - ref SDS 14 line 58 and in March at ref SDS 7 line 65, which seems to
121803 - be settled per below.
121804 -
121805 -
121806 - Talked to Frank Tokay.  Told him about discussion with Walt ref SDS 17
121807 - line 80, who indicated there is no record of the discussion with Frank
121808 - on Monday.  Frank could not recall that discussion, ref SDS 15 line
121809 - 107.  He said things have been so hectic it is difficult to keep up.
121810 -
121811 - He asked me to hold on while he reviews the record.
121812 -
121813 -
121814 -    Too Much Information No Knowledge
121815 -
121816 -    Frank said there are 17 pages of documentation in his record.  He
121817 -    feels it is not effective because there is too much stuff he cannot
121818 -    figure out what is wrong.
121819 -
121820 -    He is writing up the record again to indicate we have called
121821 -    several times and that we are not getting the basic multi-tasking
121822 -    feature, including printing.
121823 -
121824 -        Communication Metrics
121825 -
121826 -        This shows the value of linking, where they could cite the
121827 -        original problem, and simply clarify that instead of allowing
121828 -        the record to grow to the point no one can absorb it in the
121829 -        time frame they are expected to devote to a customer support
121830 -        call.
121831 -
121832 -        [Example is applied at ref SDS 16 line 61.]
121833 -
121834 -
121835 -
1219 -

SUBJECTS
Optimizing Performance
Memory Management
0387x,psh  Desktop crashed
55720  Received and Sent Folders missing in

1607 - Summary/Objective
1608 -
160801 - Frank said he will submit this to a level 2 analyst for call back
160802 - tomorrow.
160803 -
160804 - I asked if he can see in the record for 950515, where he said the
160805 - level 2 analyst would call us on 950516, ref SDS 15 line 119. Frank
160806 - said he could not find that. I asked if he could see in the record
160807 - where Walt said yesterday that a level 2 analyst will call us today?
160808 - Frank said he could not find that.  I asked what he sees in the record
160809 - that will produce a better result on this occassion than on the prior
160810 - ones. Frank said he could not see anything different we are doing that
160811 - will produce a better result.
160812 -
160813 - I asked to talk to a supervisor.  Frank asked me to hold.
160814 -
160815 - Frank came back on line and said Ashly will contact another person
160816 - tomorrow about working on this problem.  I asked to talk to Ashley.
160817 -
160818 - Frank said Ashly is at another phone location where Frank must
160819 - transfer me.  I asked if he would transfer my call.
160820 -
160821 - Talked to Ashley Gilliam with whom I spoke at ref SDS 15 line 90.
160822 -
160823 - Ashley said he has investigated the record on this problem number and
160824 - he plans to talk to the Level 2 Support team leader tomorrow to
160825 - expedite action.
160826 -
160827 -    He feels there are two distinct problems, and so wants to create a
160828 -    separate problem numbers in order to reduce the volume of informa-
160829 -    tion.
160830 -
160831 -
160832 - Scope of problem
160833 -
160834 - Ashley asked about the scope of the problem.  I explained the
160835 - problems previously presented:
160836 -
160837 -    •  DOS apps not functioning well in multi-tasking mode with os2
160838 -       Help per ref SDS 13 line 131, which were discussed with Dennis
160839 -       Riddlesmore and Glenn McGordy, in March and January per ref SDS
160840 -       13 line 162.  There is noticible delay of 5 - 15 seconds on
160841 -       loading subsequent DOS apps.
160842 -
160843 -    •  Internet program seems to cause other apps to slow down also. We
160844 -       are missing the Sent and Received folder in the Mail Cabinet
160845 -       folder, per problem #55720 issued at ref SDS 12 line 53.
160846 -
160847 -    •  Loading Windows apps with SDS is slow and very slow, for example
160848 -       Omnipage, per ref SDS 6 line 56.
160849 -
160850 -       About half an hour ago I clicked on the Desktop icon for MS
160851 -       Word, and the pointer changed to a clock, indicatng the program
160852 -       was loading, but after about 30 seconds nothing happens. I click
160853 -       back on the SDS window and it is made current. I hear the system
160854 -       reading the disk in what seems like periodic chunks. About 10
160855 -       minutes later the speakers give a partial burst of sound as
160856 -       occurs when MS Word boots up. The disk keeps clicking
160857 -       periodically.  OS2 suddenly changes SDS window where I am
160858 -       writing this material from a current application to a
160859 -       background, as though Windows is about to jump onto the screen.
160860 -       More minutes, nothing comes up.  I click on the SDS window and
160861 -       it is made current again.  I enter more stuff, and 5 minutes
160862 -       later the SDS window is changed to background again.  Now I
160863 -       cannot make it current and Word does not come up, so I boot the
160864 -       computer to clear everything and start over.
160865 -
160866 -          [Seem to have solved this at ref SDS 18 line 63.]
160867 -
160868 -
160869 - DOS Apps Fail under OS2???
160870 -
160871 - Ashley said some DOS apps do not work very well.
160872 -
160873 -     He explained that DOS applications are sending queries to the OS
160874 -     keyboard buffer for keystrokes.  If several DOS apps are open at
160875 -     the same time, then this can overwhelm the operating system.
160876 -
160877 -     I asked how this accomplishes IBM's representation to its
160878 -     customers that os2 is a better DOS than DOS ref SDS 5 line 79.
160879 -
160880 -     Ashley said this is an overlooked problem.
160881 -
160882 -     I explained that the screen delays we are experiencing did not
160883 -     occur under os2 2.0, and under 2.1, nor 2.11.  It seemed that
160884 -     when we first purchased 3.0 these problems did not occur.
160885 -
160886 - Ashley said this record indicates our problem is not caused by a
160887 - keyboard buffer issue of the kind he has in mind.
160888 -
160889 -        [Actually, it seems to have turned this was the problem, per
160890 -        ref SDS 18 line 63.]
160891 -
160892 -
160893 -
160894 - DOS Setting Changes
160895 -
160896 - I told Ashley about the changes to the DOS Settings I made on May 14,
160897 - at ref SDS 14 line 60.
160898 -
160899 -     Ashley said these changes should not be causing the poor
160900 -     performance we are experiencing.
160901 -
160902 -     He feels the changes should improve system performance, as
160903 -     indicated by the IBM Information in the OS2 folder Improving
160904 -     Performance program.
160905 -
160906 -
160907 -
160908 - Config Changes
160909 -
160910 - He feels we might want to add /V to following command:
160911 -
160912 -      BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD /V
160913 -
160914 -         Ashley said this change causes the 1s506 driver to verify the
160915 -         drive hardware instead assuming its values based on checking
160916 -         the BIOS (or something like that).
160917 -
160918 -
160919 - He further suggested we try adding the following at the bottom of
160920 - config.sys.
160921 -
160922 -      SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY
160923 -
160924 -         Ashley explained what this does, but I could not follow his
160925 -         explanation.
160926 -
160927 -
160928 -      [Later removed both of these changes, per ref SDS 18 line 78.]
160929 -
160930 -     Apparent Solution
160931 -
160932 -     After making the above changes I booted the computer, because the
160933 -     screens were frozen.  I could not close anything nor would the
160934 -     desktop menu come to do a regular shutdown.
160935 -
160936 -     When the os2 desktop came up I opened the SDS DOS app.  I then
160937 -     opened the os2 folder, and then opened the Information folder.
160938 -     Then I opened the Performance Considerations program, and called
160939 -     Improving Performance, then selected DOS Programs.  This is the
160940 -     state or condition that has been failing.  I clicked on the SDS
160941 -     window, and it was current immediately.  I clicked on the os2
160942 -     Help screen, and it became current immediately.  I clicked back
160943 -     and forth quickly and each window became current immediately.
160944 -
160945 -     I reported we have an apparent solution.
160946 -
160947 - Ashley suggested we not conclude this represents a solution.  We
160948 - removed the two changes he suggested above, and then did a shutdown,
160949 - since we now had full use of the mouse.
160950 -
160951 - When os2 came up again, we tried the test above and it failed.  The
160952 - screens froze up.
160953 -
160954 -
160955 -
160956 - Changes Failed
160957 -
160958 - We then tried putting in just one of the changes.  Testing showed the
160959 - os2 program failed.  We then put the other config.sys change back.
160960 - Testing showed the os2 program failed.  We then tried putting both
160961 - changes back.  This failed also.
160962 -
160963 - We unable to get os2 to work correctly as it did on the first test.
160964 -
160965 - Actually the system seems to work a little better in switching between
160966 - the os2 help screen and the SDS screen, but not the way it should.
160967 -
160968 - It still takes excessive time for os2 Help to come on line.
160969 -
160970 -
160971 - BIOS and RAM Cache
160972 -
160973 - Ashley suggested checking the BIOS.
160974 -
160975 -      Setting for cachable RAM.  It should be set the amount of RAM.
160976 -
160977 -      I booted the computer and called the BIOS program.  There was
160978 -      not a setting for the amount of cache memory.  Ashley said this
160979 -      likely indicates that the BIOS or OS2 allocate the entire amount
160980 -      of system RAM, 32 MB, to the cache.
160981 -
160982 -
160983 - Further Analysis by IBM Level 2 is Needed
160984 -
160985 - He feels there is nothing more we can do at this level.  He plans to
160986 - enter in the IBM record the things we tried and the results to aid the
160987 - level 2 analyst.  He will call the supervisor at level 2, to encourage
160988 - prompt action.  Ashley said that since our computer is functioning,
160989 - IBM should not assign this a high priority.  We considered the fact
160990 - that this matter has been pending since 950515, per ref SDS 15 line
160991 - 116, but actually going back to January and February and March, ref
160992 - SDS 7 line 43.
160993 -
160994 - Ashley agreed to expedite this matter.
160995 -
160996 -
160997 -
Distribution. . . . See "CONTACTS"