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AST RESEARCH, INC.           TECHNICAL BULLETIN # 1013                11-14-94

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        THIRD FLOPPY SUPPORT ON AST PREMIUM SE SYSTEMS WITH DOS 6.X OR HIGHER


PROBLEM:        The ASTDSK.DRV or DRIVER.SYS third floppy disk driver does not
                work with DOS version 6.x or higher.  When using either of
                these drivers, the following error message occurs:

                     Sector not found reading drive x: Abort? Retry? Fail?

                where x is the logical drive in question.

CAUSE:          The driver provided by AST (ASTDSK.DRV) was written
                specifically for DOS 5.x and is not supported by DOS 6.x.
                The Microsoft driver (DRIVER.SYS) that ships with DOS 6.x is
                not compatible with AST's Premium SE 1.5 floppy interface.

SYSTEMS
AFFECTED:           AST
                PART NUMBER          DESCRIPTION

                500887-XXX      PREMIUM SE 486DX/33
                500888-XXX      PREMIUM SE 486DX/50
                500998-XXX      PREMIUM SE 486DX-2/50
                500999-XXX      PREMIUM SE 486DX-2/66
                500889-XXX      PREMIUM XP CABINET

SOLUTION:       Use DOS version 5.x.  No additional software release will be
                made available.