Hi there! Did you run MemMaker already? Maybe it helps (make backups of autoexec.bat/config.sys first).
It also can make more memory available to Windows 3.x..

You have 20MB of RAM. That's fine as such. But maybe the cache is too small ?
If the motherboard cache is small, 8 or 16MB is all it can cache.

These are just ideas. It's late, I must go to sleep now. 😴

Good luck. 😀 🤞

Are you using the plain VGA video driver or a Trident SVGA one?

jakethompson1 wrote on 2023-06-18, 01:04:

Are you using the plain VGA video driver or a Trident SVGA one?

I haven't touched any of the Drivers in 3.1 yet. I'll try installing the Trident T9440 Win3.x one?

AmbassadorCosh wrote on 2023-06-18, 01:28:

jakethompson1 wrote on 2023-06-18, 01:04:

Are you using the plain VGA video driver or a Trident SVGA one?

I haven't touched any of the Drivers in 3.1 yet. I'll try installing the Trident T9440 Win3.x one?

Oh, I was going to suggest the other way around so no fix there.
You might try disabling the Memory Relocation feature in your BIOS if you use the Trident driver (or if not).

Idk but for some reason I'm thinking about whether you've checked your swap file configuration. Is swap active? How much swap do you have available?

unBIOSed wrote on 2023-06-18, 02:38:

Idk but for some reason I'm thinking about whether you've checked your swap file configuration. Is swap active? How much swap do you have available?

15970KB Permanent (using BIOS)

AmbassadorCosh wrote on 2023-06-18, 02:50:

unBIOSed wrote on 2023-06-18, 02:38:

Idk but for some reason I'm thinking about whether you've checked your swap file configuration. Is swap active? How much swap do you have available?

15970KB Permanent (using BIOS)

That sounds fine.

Could you post your config.sys, autoexec.bat and "mem /c" output?

Also stumbled across this from a Windows Resource Kit about troubleshooting Windows 3.1: https://www.tech-insider.org/windows/research … 20221/6TRBL.pdf , might help.

Are you trying to use 32-bit disk access with an HDD and cd-rom sharing one IDE cable?

5 minutes seems awfully long to load Windows. It should be more like 5 seconds. I’ve seen this kind of hang when there are driver issues…usually related to network, but sometime the mouse.

I'd try reducing the amount of physical RAM to below 16MiB. Preferably 8MiB for testing. See if that fixes the problem or maybe changes the wait time. Did you install any networking protocols and do you have any network cards installed?

jakethompson1 wrote on 2023-06-18, 03:50:

Are you trying to use 32-bit disk access with an HDD and cd-rom sharing one IDE cable?

I'm not sure how to change the 32-bit disk access setting. It should be in the control panel with the Enchanced 386 stuff right? I don't see it.

Regardless, the floppy and CD are on one IDE cable into the Trident marked "VESA IDE" (vertical one)
The HDD is on a separate IDE cable going into the other IDE connector on the Trident (horizontal one)

Deunan wrote on 2023-06-18, 09:17:

I'd try reducing the amount of physical RAM to below 16MiB. Preferably 8MiB for testing. See if that fixes the problem or maybe changes the wait time. Did you install any networking protocols and do you have any network cards installed?

I pulled out the 16MB stick and left the 4MB in. I deleted Win 3.1 and did a fresh install.
Same thing.

No network card

Running out of ideas other than try with external cache disabled

Is that 486 a Cyrix CPU? I seem to vaguely recall something about bugs in Win3 kernel init (when it tries to recalibrate loop counts for delays) - this had to do with much faster CPUS but there was also something Cyrix-related there due to timing differences in mul/div execution. Try different CPU if you have one, or reduce the bus speed to say 25MHz (to get DX2-50), see if that changes anything. Other than that I'm also out of ideas.

Deunan wrote on 2023-06-18, 20:02:

Is that 486 a Cyrix CPU? I seem to vaguely recall something about bugs in Win3 kernel init (when it tries to recalibrate loop counts for delays) - this had to do with much faster CPUS but there was also something Cyrix-related there due to timing differences in mul/div execution. Try different CPU if you have one, or reduce the bus speed to say 25MHz (to get DX2-50), see if that changes anything. Other than that I'm also out of ideas.

It is a Texas Instruments 486 yes, which I believe is a modified Cyrix.

Reducing the Bus Speed, is that through jumper settings on the mobo?
I'll try another CPU if I can find one.

AmbassadorCosh wrote on 2023-06-18, 16:07:

Regardless, the floppy and CD are on one IDE cable into the Trident marked "VESA IDE"

This is a typo, right? Surely your floppy drive is not connected to IDE.

I think lowering bus speed is also a good test. Two vlb cards at 40Mhz technically isn’t in spec.