POISE-SkyLite User Guide - Palmer College of Chiropractic, Intranet ...

TROUBLESHOOTING CHAPTER 5
Connections: Asynchronous
No response from host on the PC screen
If SkyLite displays no output on the screen, it is likely that this is because either the
hardware link to the host is inoperable or there is some incompatibility between the line
characteristics of the host system and the PC.
If you can:
• Check the host connection by replacing the PC with a terminal. If the terminal
operates satisfactorily, use it to determine the host port parameters such as baud
rate using the appropriate host command. Compare these settings with the
SkyLite session parameters.
• Check the cable connections between the PC and the host system carefully.
Ensure that the correct connector is being used on the rear of the PC and that the
PC port selected in the currently active session (COM1 to COM8 or network) is
the port being physically used. Check also that the connector is not plugged into
the parallel port.
• You can use a loopback connector in the communications port to test that keys
pressed appear correctly on the screen. A loopback connector is a simple tool that
joins pin2 to pin3.
• Check that the host is not hung on an Xoff character. To overcome this, press
Ctrl and Q on your keyboard.
• Press Return, Break, or the space bar a couple of times to activate the host.
• Check that the host port is not in debug mode. Then enter “OFF” at the keyboard
to close down the session.
• Check that you have not selected the serial mouse port as your communications
port.
• Check that your communications port is set up with the correct IRQ and port
I/O address. Refer to your port reference guide or PC manual for further
information.
• Check that if you have used other manufacturer’s software, which uses the port,
that it is not left in an anomalous state. Reboot the PC to reset the port.
Garbled or no response from host
This is usually caused by incompatibilities in port settings between the PC and the host
system.
Check that the terminal type is defined correctly for your application and that it is
identical to that defined on the host port.
Check the settings of the host port (from a working terminal) using the appropriate host
command. Compare these with the settings on the PC in SkyLite’s menu. The most likely
candidates for mismatch are the baud rate or parity settings for asynchronous
communications.
Character corruption appears on screen
If letters are missing from words on the screen or spurious characters (such as cursor
positioning sequences that might look like "[23;1", etc.) appear on the screen, you should
make the following checks.
If using asynchronous communications, check that flow control is ON for both SkyLite
and the host port.
If the problem persists and you are running at a baud rate that is too high (say 19,200
bps), try resetting this to a lower baud rate, say 9600 bps. It is possible that your host
system does not correctly support flow control at higher baud rates.
62 POISE-SkyLite User Guide