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[PsyK]

Ok people, i really need some help on this one. I have an old Toshiba Satellite T2130cs and i have formatted its harddrive. It's now time to start loading on the golden oldies and get them working, but I have some problems, with alot of games. If anyone could help on some of these i would highly appreciate it.

1. Many of the games i have run to fast on this 486 beast :P and so i need to find a way to limit the cpu cycles somehow. Just so people have an idea of the games causing problems, i'm talking about games like Speedball and Prehistorik.

2. Mouse support. as there is only dos on there now (and i'm not sure what version) i don't have mouse support. I need help to find drivers that'll suit this built in mouse and i need help on how to make them work.

3. EMS, e m what? It would appear the games like Blackthorne want a bit more EMS to run, but how do i increase this. I've been googling on this one and found that i can edit something in a driver called EMM386.EXE or something but am not sure what i'm doing. Can anyone give me a detailed explanation of what it is i'm looking at changing to increase my ems.

Also if anyone could direct me to a good dos text editor which will allow me to edit anykind of file such as configs i would be most appreciative.

Thanks, hope you guys can help!

[Rogue]

1. Get CPU Killer program to slow down computer. (moslow comes to mind, google for it )

2. Use CuteMouse (google for it too) for your mouse needs in DOS.

3. You have to set config.sys and autoexec.bat to adjust computer's memory to all of your needs. One of the sticky topics (most common problems) contains information needed to adjust all of those settings. If you need more help on this, you first have to post both of those files, memory screen shoot and required amount of EMS memory for that game.

Type ver to get DOS version.

Hope this helps.

[PsyK]

ok i got the mouse all working and dl'd the cpu slower (havn't tried it yet though) but no matter what i read about ems i can't find the way to change it so that i have an extra 2048kb. I have found commands on how to do it with emm386 but whenever i do what they say to do i get invalid parameter. could someone please just post what i need to put into the config.sys file so that it'll emulate 2048kb of ems.

here is my config.sys

DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH
COUNTRY=0.44,,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
FILES=30
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHELP.SYS
STACKS=9,256

here is my autoexec.bat

C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\WINDOWS; C:\DOS
SET TEMP=C:\DOS
MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((437) C:]DOS\EGA.CPI)
MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=437
C:\APPS\MOUSE\CTMOUSE

the last line i added myself obviously

[Rogue]

To add EMS, add this line to your config.sys just belove HIMEM line.

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 8192 RAM

so it should look like this:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 8192 RAM
DOS=HIGH
COUNTRY=0.44,,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
FILES=30
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHELP.SYS
STACKS=9,256

Also you should make sure that most of the stuff loads in upper memory block, by adding devicehigh instead of device, so it should look like this:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 8192 RAM
DOS=HIGH
COUNTRY=0.44,,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHELP.SYS
FILES=30
STACKS=9,256

NOTE: I added 8192 KB of ram, which is equal to 8MB. Change it to your needs, but use 1024 x how many MB you need. So for 2MB just change that number with 2048.


You should do the same with autoexec.bat. I don't recomend of using smartdrive. In you place I would change autoexec to look like this:

@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\WINDOWS; C:\DOS
SET TEMP=C:\DOS
MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((437) C:]DOS\EGA.CPI)
MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=437
LH C:\APPS\MOUSE\CTMOUSE

Note: I am not sure if you need those mode line and that ifshelp.sys. Try to turn them off by adding REM in the fron of that line. That might save you additional memory for dos programs.

Let me know if this worked.

[win98]

well did you sort it up

[t0mme]

In the config.sys and autoexec.bat I wrote, the line

DOS=HIGH

reads

DOS=HIGH,UMB

This way DOS is not only loaded in high memory, but also in the upper memory blocks. I remember a complicated diagram I once used to sort out all those memory affairs. Convetional, Extendend, Expanded, UMB etc.

FYI, this are my files:

Config.sys

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.exe I=B000-B7FF i=e000-efff ram d=128
Devicehigh=C:\WINDOWS\mouse2\mouse.sys
Devicehigh=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vide-cdd.sys /d:oem001
devicehigh=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\display.sys con=(ega,,1)
Country=031,850,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\country.sys
FILES=40
BUFFERS=40
FCBS=1,0
STACKS=0,0

Autoexec.bat

C:\Progra~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\bootup.exe
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
@echo off
mode con codepage prepare=((850) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
mdoe con codepage select=850
SET SOUND16=C:\OPTI924
loadhigh C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /d:oem001 /L:D /V /M:12
loadhigh C:\W32PDRV\UTIL\TLIVESA.COM
C:\OPTI924\sndinit.com /b

Indeed, it's a DOS/W95 machine. Configuring it took me 2 yeats, but I can run every game as I have 624k conventional memory permanent available ans 32MB EMS and 128 XMS. Me so lucky.

In my EMM386 line you see a couple of I-parameters. The first "I" disables the support for monochrome monitors and therefore frees up some memory, but I don't know anymore what kind of memory.
Actually, I haven't been looking at these files for a couple of years because it's a complete problem-free configuration (for my pc).

One tip, try to hunt down a DOS-manual. I used a DOS7-manual, although I have DOS6. Actually, it's the only source of information I used. I stresses for instance the importance that the the order in which you put your lines is very very important.
A quick example, a bit technical but vital:

Use the command "mem /f". This displays the amount of free conventional and upper memory blocks. The important thing is that you must try to cram every program (mscdex, mouse.com etc) in the umb. In my case, mem /f shows that I have 3 regions of umb. One of 26k, 32k, and 64k. When using the command mem /c/p you'll see that mscdex uses 31k, so you should put it in the second umb. If you put the mscdex-line in the top of your autoexec.bat it means it's the first program and the comp will try to put it in the first umb. Put as you can see, it's only 26k and programs can't be split between umbs. So it will discard the first umb and goes on to the second, where it will fit. That's fine, but the first umb is discarded so it can't be used anymore.... The trick is to load some others programs before you load mscdex (move some lines in autoexec or config). Example: If you have one program of 20k and one of 5k (check with mem/c/p) you should load those before mscdex, so the first umb is completely filled. You get my point? If you have a program in your autoexec.bat which needs 60k and you put it up front, you'll lose the other umbs, because the 64k was the last one.
I hope you understand my technical gibberish...

And don't forget to modify your msdos.sys so it includes these lines:

[OPTIONS]
Logo=0
BootMulti=1
BootMenu=1
BootDefault=6
BootMenuDelay=10
Network=1

Goof around with these parameters to mod them at your needs. These lines provide you with a nice start-up menu which you otherwise get if you hold F8 during boot.