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Bugs are in any computer programs that originate from humans. They do undesirable things from making programs fail, to not doing what the program was designed for. The lists below will will never be never complete. It does give you a few clues of what you should do, either to avoid them, or ways round them.
They have not all been tested either. If your Z88 does start to behave badly, it is a good idea to backup Backup your files, do a Hard Reset and load the files back in again.
Although the built-in applications behave themselves well, if you use some BBC Basic BASIC programs, these can leave your Z88 in an unsafe state.
There are four version numbers that have been or will be released. These are v2.2, v3.0, v3.1 and v4.0. The version 3.1 have been used in non-English Z88s and bugs that affect this version are listed separately.. Version 4 has been upgraded since then and most of the bugs here have been fixed.
Alarm
Every second forever spells trouble
Do not set the alarm to this combination. The only way out is a Soft Reset.
Date Wrap
Setting the Alarm, a certain way leads to the incorrect date being set. One example is to set the Alarm to every month, once.
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If you are using 256K EPROMS there are several things to avoid.
Do not save TWO LETTER filenamesfile names. You will not be able to get them back again.
The largest file you should save is under 64K. That is 65536 bytes. If you save a file that is any larger than that you can't save any more files, even if there is space for them.
After erasing a 256K EPROM, it is prudent to blow a Header on EPROM before saving any files. See Header on EPROM.
File in Use
Note this bug is fixed in Version 4 of OZ.
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Sometimes when you try to delete a file, the Z88 will tell you the file is still in use and you can't delete it. You can cure this by doing a Soft Reset. To avoid this happening again, when Cataloging files, do not press any other key except and
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The cure is to give your Z88 a Soft Reset.
Catalogue Files Crashes
Using the following Wild cards to catalogue Files in the Filer, they don't give pleasing answers.
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There are known limitations in PipeDream due to Magic Numbers.
The maximum no of lines on the page (Page length in OPTIONS) you should set for is 127. Setting any more lines will crash the Z88 eventually. Setting the Page Length to 0 will give you an indefinite length, i.e. no page breaks.
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DO NOT use BRP Replace across Slot Boundaries. It can cause Soft Resets.
Search Sequence ^B
If you use this search sequence on its own to match the start of a line, it does not work.
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There is an unexplained error in the Printer Driver that crashes the Z88 (see Dennis Groning's Link) after doing a File Update. The solution is to only edit an existing Printer Driver or install a new one after you have done a Hard Reset, then
LEAVE IT ALONE. If you wish to change the Printer Driver at a later stage, make sure that all your files are Backed up beforehand. See Backing up Files.
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Note this bug is fixed in Version 4 of OZ. |
See Finding z88's Version Number.
You should periodically check whether you have any files in your :RAM.- device. Should you get a soft reset with files in this device it can lock the Z88 up, or make it do a hard reset.
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This command does not operate properly in this version. (see OZ Versions).