So i fired my old comp(P1 @ 166 Mhz, 96 RAM-don't ask me why i have so much-, 2 Mb S3 Trio Video Card-PCI of course-) yesterday and i tried to install Kyrandia 1.I installed it, ran the setup, everything went smooth.I started the game, the movie played until the bit were the narrator says something about malcolm stealing the kyragem, and wreaking havoc in kyrandia.Then it looks for something on the cd(i have the full game), and suddently i get this message:
"*** Hymem.sys Error (A7) *** Run setup and remove XMS and HMA usage.

Memory allocation error
Cannot load COMMAND, system halted."

Progress so far:
1.Reinstalled DOS - didn't solve anything
2.Removed some RAM cartridges - didn't solve anything
3.Tried fiddling with the hymem & emm386 command parameters, no success

Particularities:
The problem only appears to westwood games.I successfully played ufo, but i couldn't play Kyrandia 2 because of the same problem

Similarities:
I had the same problem when trying to run Kyrandia 2.This time the intro movie finishes, i enter a new game, zanthia says oh my god i have been robed(yes it's also the full cd version), and then it says please wait loading data from the CD, it checks the CD, then it restarts(there is no error prompt).

Misc:
1.I have enough memory to run it, so it isn't a case of not enough memory(i had 625(!) k base memory and enough XMS memory -imagine 96 Mb ram :))
2.It seems to be some sort of cd rom -memory conflict
3.The cd is good, i ran the game flawlessly a few weeks ago

I leave this case in your capable hands :help:

Hi Omuletzu,
it seems like a weird problem with HIMEM.SYS and emulation of upper memory blocks usually set up by this command in CONFIG.SYS file: DOS=HIGH,UMB
Finally the game itself cry about not using XMS memory that's provided by switching parameters once again in CONFIG.SYS file. It's maintained by EMM386.EXE.

Please, attach here your actual CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.
I will read it through to find suitable solution otherwise your only chance will be emulation :)

/wallymian :bye:

What version of DOS are you using?

Also, is your CD-Rom driver working fine?

the ESS line is related to my sound card

My CD rom is working fine anubis(i'm using MSCDEX drivers, provided by DOS 7.1-the version i'm currently using)
I've attached the archive containing the two files

Move this line:

DEVICE=C:\ESSUTIL\ES1868.COM /A:0 /I:0

belove this one:

DEVICE=C:\DOS71\EMM386.EXE RAM

Make it DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS71\EMM386.EXE RAM


Also remove double path line in autoexec.

What game you having problem with?

Since this has been revive, please merge my two topics, eagle, as the other one contains relevant info regarding the subject...
Are you sure Anubis? Those lines were inserted there by my soundcard config utility...

Two problems: I don't know which thread is the second thread you are refering to and my Moderator powers are not powerfull enough to allow me to merge two threads together... :(

Edit: Anyways, I closed the other thread and here is what you said in it:
Also, did you look at the quoted guide at the end of this thread second post?

Yes, I am sure. First install memory manager, and then other devices.

No problem, eagle, i'll just repost my message

Because i couldn't find the solution, i tried to go about it the newbie way.Like this:
I said okay the problem can be of two causes:
1.Hardware
2.Software
So i set out to replace every hardware component that could affect the game.
So i switched the video card with an older one, i fiddled with the RAM cartridges, formatted the HDD, switched between ESS 1868 and 1869, to see if the soundcard is the cause, AND i even went through changing my motherboard, along with the processor... so having checked all the components that could influence the game(the source(or whatever it is called in english), and the floppy couldn't affect the game me thinks)
So here i turn to you(again).Hence the error is memory related, i need a DOS tool that scans the memory for bad blocks, or something like this.It is wierd though that both the start up memory scan AND the more thorough himem scan DO NOT report any errors.
Also i have searched through the extensive DOS help, and found out that emm(or himem, can't remember) has a command to block programs access to certain memory blocks.Now sometime in the past i got an error saying something like this (the idiot me didn't bother the note down the error ):
Emm386 has found an error in memory block xxx, where xxx was a memory block value.If only i would have noted that value down, the problem would have been solved now .Needless to say i tried to make that error come up again, but i failed.I even reinstalled DOS, in the hopes that the error would come again...

I checked that thread now, eagle, and i didn't see anything interesting... this is not you standard memory error :(
I'll try that anubis, but i don't think it will solve anything, as the error is memory related... keep trying, i'll get back to you with the answer

Hi Omuletzu,
I sent you PM, please check it :)

/wallymian

Okay Anubis, i modified my system files accordingly... to no avail.., any other ideas? :cry:

When you start your system, what happens and when?

Tell you what, i'm going to copy the exact phrase that appears on the screen when i start my pc, and try to link it to the lines in the sys files.Where i fail, i'll let you try, ok?
*starting after PCI device listing*
Welcome to Ms Dos 7.10
Copyright Microsoft Corp.All rights reserved
DOS 7.10 XMS driver v 3.95
Extended memory specification(XMS) v 3.0
Copyright 1988-1995 Microsoft Corp.
Installed A20 handler number 1
HIMEM is testing extended memory...
*this line is called by the /TESTMEM:ON command from my config.sys.This was one of my first attempts to solve the problem, ie checking if the RAM is damaged in any way*
*after a few seconds, the himem test detects no errors, and this line is displayed:*
64K High memory area(HMA) is available.
ESS IDE CD-ROM controller ( ESS 1868 ) enable program v 4.3
Copyright © ESS tehnology, Inc. 1995-1996.
IDE/ATAPI CD-Rom device driver v 2.14 10:48:22 02/17/98
CD-ROM drive #0 found on 1F0h port slave device. vYYS2
Killer v 1.0 copyright 1995 by Vincent Penquerc'h.All rights reserved.
Killer installed in memory.
DOSKEY installed.
DOSFLN 0.32o: high loaded consuming 11840 bytes.
MSCDEX version 2.25
Copyright © Microsoft Corp. 1986-1995.All rights reserved.
Drive D = Driver IDE-CD unit 0
SHARE v7.10 (Revision 4.11.1492)
Copyright © 1989-2003 Datalight, Inc.
installed
Cutemouse v1.9.1 [DOS] installed at COM1 (03F8h/IRQ 4) in Logitech mode.

*END*
Also here are my memory stats:
Memory type:.....Total..........Used...........Free
Conventional:.....640K..........17K(!).........623 K (WITH the cd rom drivers loaded :P)
Upper:................155K..........95K........... ..60K
Reserved:...........229K..........229K............ 0K
Xtended (XMS)..97280K........492K.........96788K
-------------------------------------------------------------
Total memory:...98304K........833K.........97471K

Total under 1 Mb:795K..........112K..........683K

Total Extended (XMS): 97.280K(99,614,720 bytes)
Free Extended (XMS): 96.688K(99,110,912 bytes)

Largest executable program size: 622K(636,688 bytes)
Largest free upper memory block: 52K(53,536 bytes)
Available space in High Memory Area: 5K(5,312 bytes)
MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

*Note: Killer, Share, Doskey, Dosfln, etc. all al programs installed with 7.10.
*Second note: if you have any questions regarding my setup, please ask me, and i will search through the doshelp program, that came with the installation of Dos 7.10
Because i have changed my sys configuration, i have also included my current configuration

Anybody?

I still do not understand what happens. I see your output when you start PC, but does it load? Do you get DOS prompt?

Please read the first post, as i am too tired to repeat myself...

yes i get dos prompt, other games work, i only get such errors when playing the kyrandia series

Sorry, I was thinking you have bigger problem.

There is small problem with your config.sys.

Delete 'RAM' from this line:

so after you fix it, it should look like this:


Try then to play that game.

I set ems to 8Mb on my win98/dos computer and I had not problem with any games I tried so far.

I tried both with RAM, then with NOEMS, then with both, and thern with neither of them, and it still didn't work... :angry:

thanks for trying though.I guess i'll just have to play the ripped version(which curiously enough, works :angry: :angry: :Titan: :sniper: )

*bump
How do set my emm386 to set half of my ram as extended, and half as expanded?
I have 96 Mb of Ram.