Conventional memory Part II

[Huxley]

I'm still struggling to get enough conventional memory to run a couple of CD games within DOS. My contents of CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT are listed below.

AUTOEXEC.BAT
LH /L:1,28032 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX /D:MSCD001 /V
C:\MOUSE\MOUSE
C:\windows\cwcdata\cwcdos.exe /s /i5 /a220 /d1

CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=C:\MEMMAKER\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\MEMMAKER\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
BUFFERS=30,0
FILES=30
DOS=UMB
LASTDRIVE=Z
FCBS=4,0
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,22896 =C:\CDROM\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001

I need the CD driver, mouse and sound card enabled in order to run the game. It reports that it needs 450-570k of free memory to run, I currently have 550k and it doesn't run.

Any help/advice appreciated!!
Ian

[Steve R Jones]

Before
DEVICE=C:\MEMMAKER\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\MEMMAKER\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
BUFFERS=30,0
FILES=30
DOS=UMB
LASTDRIVE=Z
FCBS=4,0
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,22896 =C:\CDROM\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001

After
DEVICE=C:\Windows\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\Windows\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
BUFFERS=30,0
DOS=HIGH,UMB
LASTDRIVE=G (or one letter past your last drive)
FCBS=4,0
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,22896 =C:\CDROM\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001

[Steve R Jones]

By defualt, windows loads files=60 in the io.sys file. I wouldn't go under that amount. just my 2 cents..

[BFlurie]

Why do you need a DOS CDRom driver, DOS mouse program, and the cwcdos.exe program loaded? These do nothing in Windoz (even in a DOS box), and there are better ways to have these available for a pure DOS session, like a customized DOS .pif file.

[Huxley]

I need the mouse, cd-rom and sound drivers because the game needs all these services to run properly. The only way I can get other similar games to run is to boot to the command prompt only, booting into Windows then restarting in DOS mode used even more memory. And I couldn't run the game from within Windows as it always prompted that it needed to run exclusively in DOS mode....

[AdamAdsy]

I have tried setting up my computer to run dos games and I found that if you go into the advanced properties for the dos program and then tell it not to suggest dos mode and tell it to prevent dos program from detecting windows the program usually runs fine. The only problem I got is some programs just said the had performed an illegal operation but chances are these dont require much memory.

Hope this helps

[Huxley]

Tried that too !!

[frank5]

Why don't you try running memmaker since you are using a version of dos which has this conventional memory utility.
Boot your computer into dos,don't try to do it from a c:> in windows. Type c:\memmaker.
It will give you two chioces,whether or not to load your device drivers into high memory. Try each choice and see which one opens up enough conventional memory to load your dos games.
Theoretically, choosing loading device drivers high will open up more conventional memory for you. I had problems loading games after choosing loading high and afterwards, chose not to load high and was able to run my games with no problem.
If this doesn't work, then your going to have to rem out your mouse driver in autoexec.bat to open up more memory. You don,t need your mouse with most dos games.

[BFlurie]

When you double-click the prog from Windoz, & it says something 'bout pure DOS, try clicking on "no" or "cancel" to see if it'll work anyway.

For a mem analysis, when you're in Windows, run Mem.exe from a DOS box.

mem /a/c/p

Then choose "Edit/ Mark" on the DOS box options (upper-left button) & expand the highlight box from the upper-left corner (then paste the result onto a text file), or just write down the values. Then we can see what's loading where.

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 02-28-2001).]

[Huxley]

Just for your info, I've already run memmaker, and my startup files above have already been stripped from what they were, down to what you see above.

[Huxley]

.....AND I need the mouse driver for the game because it's a point-and-click adventure type game!!

[ayuen]

Hi Huxley,

I'm not a 100% sure on this but I think that the NOEMS flag won't let programs load into high memory. i.e. the loadhigh and devicehigh commands won't work. Try:

device=c:\memmaker\emm386.exe ram highscan

You should also try loading your mouse driver and cwcdos.exe into high memory with loadhigh or lh.

[This message has been edited by ayuen (edited 03-01-2001).]

[BFlurie]

Thas' rite. Make sure all your device= and load lines ('cept for himem.sys and emm386.exe) are devicehigh= and loadhigh or lh.

Ex.
lh c:\mouse\mouse

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 03-01-2001).]

[frank5]

Good point ayuen. I was going to suggest that he change noems to ram manually but usually,memmaker automatically makes this change when you choose to load high.

[Huxley]

Thanks to all who responded to my original posting. I implemented some of the changes listed above and I ended up with 606K free !!
That's the highest free conventional memory I've ever seen !!
Again, thanks all.