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SDRmap v6.5 on Dosbox

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First post, by DAD

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Hey, I have an old land survey program called SDR mapping & design v6.5 which I am struggling to get onto my new work computer that has Windows Vista. I've managed to get it going in Dosbox but am getting weird errors.
Any help on this topic would be appreciated.

Reply 1 of 26, by MiniMax

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Did you try looking up "weird errors" in the documentation?

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Reply 2 of 26, by DAD

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Yeah, sorry about the late night description. Family was sick and I was trying to get a project completed by the end of the weekend.

Dosbox has the error:

Warning: file creation failed: c:\mapsys\MAPDATA\VARRAY.DAT

I wonder if I'm getting the error above because of the weird administration rights vista seems to run for everything.

I tried another way of getting SDRmap to work by installing the Windows XP drivers for my graphics card to allow command prompt to go full screen. This has worked pretty well, but the screen is still quite dull and I still need to use Dosbox to start a project in SDRmap for some reason.

I hate Windows vista. I might get the boss to upgrade to NT. Even XP would suffice.

Reply 3 of 26, by ih8registrations

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Using a disk image instead of running it from the host drive might circumvent Vista's interference.

Reply 4 of 26, by Qbix

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well if you give yourselves acces to the folder in question it should work.

You might want to check if
c:\mapsys\mapsdata exists

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Reply 5 of 26, by Dominus

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especially if that folder exists in that location within your mountings. To me it sounds like your installation is broken. Meaning the program looks for files where they don't are in your mountings. Usually that is fixed by installing from within Dosbox. Of course you have to have writing permissions.

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Reply 6 of 26, by MiniMax

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Read my 60 Seconds Guide to DOSBox (and don't just read it - follow it too).

If that doesn't help, come back with details on how you mounted your C and D drives, how you did the install, how you configured sound, music etc.

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Reply 7 of 26, by DAD

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Current Computer:
Hewlet Packard Laptop Compaq 6710b, Windows Vista Business 32-bit

I had SDR working one my home computer in Windows 2000.

I copied it directly over and tried to load it using Command Prompt.

Vista directed me that cmd does not operate in fullscreen mode.

I followed some advice to install xp graphic drivers to allow fullscreen mode on cmd, but SDR and a few other programs did not work properly.

I have installed DOSBox and have SDR installed under the following directory:

C:\DOSBox-0.72\MAPSYS

I then:

Mount c c:\DOSBox-0.72

SDR loads fine and in the initial screen it prompts the following functions:

Continue recent job (filename)
Start new job
select and existing job
Configure system
Automatic processing

These all work fine initially but once in SDR and any one of these functions are selected SDR crashes and displays the following message:

Runtime error 6 at 003d:20E8 in module DQMLIB.dll

This is also a file under c:\DOSBox-0.72\MAPSYS

For all intent and purpose SDR is working... it's just causing me a major headache every time I need to select one of those functions as I need to reopen SDR each time.

fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=1024x768
windowresolution=original
output=surface
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true

language=
machine=vga
captures=capture
memsize=63

nosound=true

mpu401=intelligent
device=default
config=

sbtype=none

gus=false

pcspeaker=false

joysticktype=none

xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=none

ipx=false

Reply 8 of 26, by DosFreak

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Very rarely do DOS programs use .dll's. Are you sure that .dll isn't a Windows .dll? If so then it will not work in DosBox.

It's possible that your DOS program used some Windows functionality in that .dll which of course would not work in DosBox.

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Reply 9 of 26, by DAD

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Thanks heaps for the advise! SDR is definitely dos-based, perhaps a later windows patch has been slammed on top of it.

Love DOSBox by the way... brought back the good old days of X-com Enemy Defence and Dune! Wife wasn't so happy about it... but she can't stop me when she's asleep 😉

Keeps complaining about marrying a sci-fi computer nerd.

She was a virgin to the likes of "Star Wars" and "The Last Starfighter" until I came along. She hadn't even watched "the Goonies" for crying out loud?!

Reply 10 of 26, by wd

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try core=normal and cycles=3000

Reply 11 of 26, by DAD

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Sorry about the rash questioning.

Will post any future problems (if I have any) in the games/app forum.

Reply 12 of 26, by Napstr

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Hi
I am using an older version of DosBox (071) and it throws me out every now and then and also I cannot use the print to a file option - when I try and print it crashes saying "the disk is full" which is obviously not correct as I can create a job and save my data - just not print to a txt file

Reply 13 of 26, by wd

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Use a newer version of dosbox then.

Reply 14 of 26, by Napstr

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Don't think it's the version that is causing the error - the software will run straight on XP but has conflicts with certain machines hardware drivers - and dosbox seems to resolve the conflict allowing it to run although there are certain problems experienced around save times

Reply 15 of 26, by eL_PuSHeR

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Napstr:

I have replaced your huge 1,55MB BMP attachment with a more smaller one.

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Reply 16 of 26, by wd

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Don't think it's the version that is causing the error

Then use the new version.

As you get a nice error message about a specific file, check its permissions
and file attributes (remove a hidden/readonly attribute for example).

Reply 17 of 26, by Napstr

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Oops sorry bout the large file 😀

Can't change the file attributes as it doesn't exist

Reply 18 of 26, by wd

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Then add the directories so the file can be created.

Reply 19 of 26, by Napstr

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Directory is added as that is where the source files are located