Specifications

3. Operation
This chapter contains information about user operation of the EPC-2.
System Reset
There are several ways for the operator to perform a system reset: pressing the reset
switch on the front panel, simultaneously pressing the CTRL+ALT+DEL keys on the
keyboard, invoking the BIOS setup program and following its instructions for reset, and
power-off/power-on.
The reset switch performs a hardware reset of the EPC-2 and invokes the BIOS initial-
ization routine, which performs a selftest of the hardware, initializes the EPC-2 hard-
ware, locates the disk drives, and tries to boot an operating system.
If a keyboard is attached, pressing the CTRL+ALT+DEL keys causes a trap to the BIOS
for a software-controlled reset. It is similar to pressing the reset switch, except no initial
hardware reset occurs and only a subset of the selftest is performed. Unlike the reset
switch, CTRL+ALT+DEL sometimes has no effect. The reason is that it is handled by
software, and if the EPC-2 is currently "hung" somewhere in the operating system or
application program in a state where interrupts are disabled, or if software has taken
control of the keyboard interrupt, the CTRL+ALT+DEL sequence has no way of
interrupting the software.
Removing and reapplying power to the EPC-2 also causes a hardware reset.
* DISK DEVICES THAT AUTOMATICALLY PARK THEIR HEADS HAVE
BEEN KNOWN TO FAIL OCCASIONALLY IF POWER IS REAPPLIED TOO
QUICKLY
. AFTER REMOVING POWER, WAIT 10 SECONDS OR MORE
BEFORE REAPPLYING POWER
.
Generating VXIbus SYSRESET
When power is applied, the EPC-2 drives the VXIbus SYSRESET signal for at least the
minimum time required by the VXIbus specification. Resetting the EPC-2 via the reset
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