Message-Id: <200010301545.KAA08578@xellos.bignet.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 To: From: "Mark at Cross+Road's" CC: , Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2000 22:45:06 -0600 X-Mailer: Net-Tamer 1.12.0 Subject: emm386 errors Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com Hi Pat, I've already made mention of some areas of flakyness for Drdos 386 errors but to review here's a couple others! The newest version of pkunzip 1999 for dos will not work for me without an error! The 1993 version works fine without any errors! I wouldn't know if that is related to the bias or not? Also, I cannot load fcb's high without causing the error when entering w31-11 at all! The problem has once been identified with the "dpmi:" and for sure if I use the dpmi=off beforehand I can run the pkunzip without any problems at all. I've also recieved errors in Nettamer and a handful of other dos programs! I do believe that the problem is with the dpmi and now just wonder what if I always just booted with the dpmi off what would happen How much memory I wonder would I lose? What does the dpmi do anyways? Mark On 2000-10-29 opendos AT delorie DOT com said: >Hi Mark >----- Original Message ----- >Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2000 10:52 PM >> CD-ROM. I bought it becasue I got tired of the DR-DOS EMM366 >>flaking out when trying to use certain software, or functions of >>that software. I also didn't like that Lineo wasn't doing >>anything with it even thought they knew they had bug, such as the >>Fdisk/Format thing that people are going round and round about. >>I guess I wanted a version of DOS that wasn't Microsoft, but was >still built in a professional way. > >> I have also thought about setting up DRDOS again, but with QEMM8 >DRDOS works great with QEMM 7.52, it should work with v8. I have an >update for 8 but lost 8. a diskette got corrupted and I was unable >to recover it. If you could send me a copy of 8, I can compare it >to 7.52. Since I hate EMS memory, I don't use QEMM unless I need it. >QEMM takes some doing in order to use it with a multi-boot system. >I am using DRDOS LOADER for multi-boot. I can get around it though >but when I add something new like a driver, I have to go through >the same long procedure to optimize it agaim. The main reason I >used it was for DesqView, but now that DRDOS Task manager work, I >don't need DV any more. I actually get more memory with DRDOS >EMM386 without EMS than I do with QEMM. But if I want EMS then >using QEMM with Stealth, I get just about the same as I do without >EMS. I acually gain back the 32k that EMS uses with QEMM Stealth. >What kind of bugs are you encountering and what software does not >work for you? Some software cannot use EMS installed, some cannot >have DPMI installed, etc. I do not seem to have any problems with >it, however, programs that will work on my system okay do not work >right on my brother's computer. We both have DRDOS 7.03 installed. >He has flaky problems with some programs that I do not have >problems with. I know that for one thing, his BIOS sucks big time. >So it may not even be a problem with the EMM386 itself, but with >something low level in the system. >You can buy a good new MB cheaper than upgrading an old BIOS. I >only paid about $60 including shipping for this used MB with 48MB >RAM installed. A BIOS update for it will cost $80 +shp. The idiots >at the OEM that made this board claims that these BIOS chips are no >longer available. I even told those idiots to send me a BIOS update >file and I could buy a flash rom and program it. So I checked with >a couple of BIOS update places and they quote about the same price. >Another DOS with it's EMM386 may work fine. So QEMM may fix your >problem. Another thing you can do is use QEMM and have it check for >additional exclusions. Then after QEMM determines the exclusions it >finds, use these in your DRDOS EMM386 line. Even QEMM is not >perfect because you sometimes do have to check for these additional >exclusions. Normally, you don't even bother to run that portion. >You are only suppose to use it if the system does not boot >correctly after installing QEMM, but I have found it to be useful >at times and just try them one at a time or use them all and >eliminate them one at a time until I can find the culprit(s). This >is probably the problem my brother has. >I haven't tried it on this MB, but my old 386DX40 had some, but >never did find where they caused a problem, in fact QEMM did not >want to use the whole video ROM area and I told it to use it with >Stealth, and the system worked fine. I could put the EMS frame at >C000-C8FF, right on top of the video BIOS! But you cannot do that >with all video cards, I just happened to be lucky. I actually have >what is called a split ROM. A portion in the middle of the ROM area >is not used (4 or 8k.) >If you do use QEMM you may want to experiment with it to get the >most memory. In version 7 their Qtips for DRDOS was not correct. >They claimed that by letting QEMM use the HMA you would get more >conventional memory that letting DOS use it. Novell DOS 7 through >DRDOS 7.01 made better use of it, I would get more conventional >memory by letting DOS load into HMA. DRDOS 7.02 would not load some >parts of it into HMA. The 7.02 update to 7.03 also gave more memory. >I never did check it out with the final release of 7.03. QEMM 8 may >be better, but I would play with it some. Also I learned a few >tricks about it. QRMM 8 may have fixed this problem. When loading >NWCACHE high, QEMM wanted to use 128KB of upper memory to load it. >NWCAHE will actually load high in two segaments of about 1/2 the >total needed eacg. I found that I could allow it to load with a >little less than 64k. So when it gets to the point where you can >play with the settings, you can reduce this to around 65000 bytes >or a little less. This will allow it to load later in the loading >process of drivers and such. This would allow better use of the >B000-B7FF range of memory. Most of that 128K of NWCACHE will be >moved into extended memory via DPMS. If you use WINDOZE 3.x, >WINDOZE take over the B000-B7FF range. Since I never used it with >WINDOZE 3.x, it might still be a good thing to know. I suspect that >conflicts in the UMB area is where your problem lies, but I would >like to know what programs do not work properly. There may be >something about it in the Novell TIDs.(Technical Information >Documents.) I have all of them. I don't know if they have been >posted on drdos.org yet or not, but should be a link to them. I >have been collecting them since Novell started putting them out. I >think the only ones I am missing are those for DRDOS 6.0. I have >all of the for DRDOS 7.0 and PNW. Let me know exactly how you are >running the program, i.e. EMS? DPMI? Task Manager? if DOS is loaded >high, etc. My brother likes those DOOM/Heretic type games. Some of >them work fine and some do not. I checked them all out on my >computer and they all worked for me! I installed and set up DRDOS >for him. We even have similar systems! I have and AMD 5x86 133 >with Award BIOS, he has a Cyrix 5x86-133 VIP with AMI BIOS! Go >figure! >I kinda blame it on his VESA video card. I don't have a VESA slot. >I have an ISA S3 video card. Funny thing though, some of his DOS >games will work under WINDOZE 3.1 but not in DOS! Go figure! >486's were flaky anyway! When compiling a kernel for Linux, it >needs to know if it is a 486 in order to work around 486 bugs. If >it is a 386 or pentium, it does not have to change the code for >bugs! Go figure! I know there are issues with those 486 VIP MBs. >Sometimes it is recommended just to get rid of the VESA video card >and use a PCI video card. >Pat >_________________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com