    AST RESEARCH, INC.        TECHNICAL BULLETIN # 1128          03/11/97

    TITLE:  No Floppy Drive Icon on Ascentia 900N

    ISSUE

       When running Windows NT workstation 3.5 on battery power in an
       Ascentia 900N system, there is no floppy drive icon in the File
       Manager, and the floppy drive is not recognized.

       This issue applies to the following systems: 501299, 501300,
       501302, and 501304.

    BACKGROUND

       Microsoft NT does not support power management; therefore, the
       floppy disk is not recognized when Windows NT 3.5 is booted with
       the system running on battery power.

    ACTION

       The solution to this problem is twofold:

       1. Use Ascentia 900N BIOS revision 2.02 (or later)
          available from AST's BBS.

       2. Run the SET4NT.COM utility from DOS. This program is
          available from AST's BBS. Files 528316.EXE (Ascentia
          900N BIOS 2.02) and SET4NT.COM (utility) can be found
          on AST's On-Line! services including the following:

          AST WWW Site:  http://www.ast.com
          AST On-Line! BBS*: See IB0001.TXT
          CompuServe:  GO: ASTFORUM
          Prodigy:   JUMP: ASTSUPPORT

          * Refer to IB0001.TXT for a list of AST's
            international BBS  numbers.

          To decompress this file, create a temporary directory
          on your hard drive, copy the downloaded file to that
          directory, and run the file.

       Ascentia BIOS revision 2.02 will test bit 7 of CMOS location 6Ah
       during POST, and will enable Power Management of the FDC if this
       bit is cleared. This is the normal mode of operation that most
       users will want to use unless they are running Windows NT.  This
       bit is normally cleared when CMOS is initialized and it is not
       used for any other purpose.

       If the BIOS finds that this bit is set during POST, it will
       disable Power Management of the FDC. This bit can be controlled
       with the use of the SET4NT.COM utility program.

       This program can be invoked without any command line parameters
       and it will only display how to use the program and the current
       state of the bit as shown below:

               SET4NT
               Usage:  SET4NT [1|0]
                       1 to set bit 7 of CMOS location 6Ah.
                       0 to reset bit 7 of CMOS location 6Ah.
               Bit 7 of CMOS location 6Ah is now 1

       If the program is invoked with a command line parameter of either
       "1" or "0", the operation will be carried out as specified and
       nothing will be displayed. The state of the bit can then be
       checked by invoking the program without any parameters and it
       will display the state of the bit as shown above.

       Setting or clearing this bit will only have an effect when the
       2.02 version of the BIOS is being used.  After the utility has
       been used to set the bit, the utility will not need to be used
       again unless the CMOS Setup information is lost or corrupted.

    NOTES

       N/A

    TAN N/A

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