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 <F3>, 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
                   <ALT>,<F>,<S>,<Alt>,<F>,<X>.

                7. Reboot and run Windows for Workgroups 3.11.  The keyboard
                   will now operate properly.