Well...I find QEMM to be much better in memory-handling than HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE. It should be on REMOVED. Just click on Library then Apps and type "QEMM" in the search box. I'm glad you are using ctmouse and shsucdex, though--they are more efficient than Microsoft's versions. BTW, beware of compatibility issues with QEMM and other programs: QEMM's aggressive memory-handling may cause occasional conflicts. Does this help?

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-04-02, 23:24:

Well...I find QEMM to be much better in memory-handling than HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE. It should be on REMOVED. Just click on Library then Apps and type "QEMM" in the search box. I'm glad you are using ctmouse and shsucdex, though--they are more efficient than Microsoft's versions. BTW, beware of compatibility issues with QEMM and other programs: QEMM's aggressive memory-handling may cause occasional conflicts. Does this help?

Thank you for the tip. I tried qemm in past and I can say I really dislike it, proven that more than 600kb of memory are enough for any old game, get more memory it's quite useless and at the same time tamper the general compatibility with apps\games it's another con, other than that qemm is also quite invasive and needs to be installed separately on every pc while my config you just need to do a sys c:, paste the file and it's pretty ready to be used.

At least I tried. 🙁

A generic config cannot always get the best out of the machine. Applies to both EMM386 and QEMM. That's why both have this rigorous setup where they try many combinations before deciding in the best.

Each machine has its own particularities that could eat out of the UMBs or fragment them. You have BIOS options, shadowing, and option ROMs all going for that. A straight CONFIG.SYS/Autoexec.Bat could work in one state, but fail to fit the drivers for another state. Even the drivers loading order matters.

For me QEMM is more of an enabler. I use it when EMM386 fails (most often for Lemmings 2 and Curse of Enchantia). You can tone down its aggressive search, as it asks you whether you like to dig into shadow memory...etc during OPTIMIZE.

Just like EMM386, QEMM can also be made to run in a generic fashion without doing OPTIMIZE, thus making it totally portable by mere copying of files. Disadvantages mentioned at the top apply of course.

Regarding CTMOUSE, I personally avoid it after I have used it for quite a while. It has a particular "response" to mouse moves that I hate. It's like it always fights against you. Try it back-to-back with any standard mouse driver and see if you feel that response.

Nemo1985 wrote on 2024-04-01, 07:58:

Hello fellow vogonians, in years of collecting old pc I developed a good general boot configuration for my dos 7.1 retropc (with […]
Show full quote

Hello fellow vogonians, in years of collecting old pc I developed a good general boot configuration for my dos 7.1 retropc (without windows 98) aimed to have a good compatibility and enough free conventional memory, starting from the phil boot disk configuration.
Since everything is perfectible in this world I'm looking for some advices aimed to further improve the configuration.
The files I'm going to paste are good from 486 onward, some program is not compatible with 386 machines (where anyway I use with dos 6), but I can't remember which.
The version I'm using allows me to have 626kb of conventional memory free, 157kb of upper memory free, xms (or ems) and cd driver, mouse driver plus unisound for a good compatibility with sound cards, to reach this result I obviously had to use different memory managers but I left the option to fall back to the old "good" himem.sys so if something doesn't work I can check with a more "vanilla configuration".

That's the config.sys:

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1[MENU]
2menuitem=CD-NOEMS,    CD-ROM + Memoria Estesa
3menuitem=CD-EMS,      CD-ROM + Memoria Espansa
4menuitem=CD-NO386,    CD-ROM senza EMM386
5menuitem=NOCD-NOEMS,  Memoria Estesa
6menuitem=NOCD-EMS,    Memoria Espansa
7menuitem=NOCD-NO386,  Memoria Convenzionale
8menuitem=MIN,		  Configurazione Safe
9
10menudefault=CD-NOEMS, 10
11menucolor = 7,0
12
13[COMMON]
14SWITCHES=/E:288 /F
15DOS=HIGH,UMB,AUTO
16BUFFERSHIGH=15,0
17FILESHIGH=40
18FCBSHIGH=4,0
19STACKSHIGH=9,256
20LASTDRIVEHIGH=E
21COUNTRY=039,850,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
22
23[CD-NOEMS]
24DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
25DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS NOVCPI HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
26rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
27DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
28DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
29rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
30DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
31DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /H /D:OPTICAL
32
33[CD-EMS]
34DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
35DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
36rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
37DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
38DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
39rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
40DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
41DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /H /D:OPTICAL
42
43[CD-NO386]
44DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
45DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
46DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /S10
47DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /D:OPTICAL
48
49[NOCD-NOEMS]
50DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
51DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS NOVCPI HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
52rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
53DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
54DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
55DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
56
57[NOCD-EMS]
58DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
59DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
60rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF

…Show last 14 lines

61DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
62DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
63DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
64
65[NOCD-NO386]
66DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
67DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
68DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
69
70[MIN]
71DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
72DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
73DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL

Here is the autoexec.bat:

Copy code to clipboard

1@ECHO OFF
2PROMPT $p$g
3PATH C:\DOS;C:\UTIL
4SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
5MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((850) C:\DOS\EGA.CPI)
6MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=850
7LH C:\UTIL\CTMOUSE.EXE /R2
8C:\UTIL\KEYB.EXE IT
9LH C:\UTIL\DOSKEY.COM
10C:\UTIL\UNISOUND.COM /V75 /VW75 /VF75 /VL00 /VC75 /VM00
11goto %config%
12
13:CD-NOEMS
14C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
15goto end
16
17:CD-EMS
18C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
19goto end
20
21:CD-NO386
22C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
23goto end
24
25:NOCD-NOEMS
26goto end
27
28:NOCD-EMS
29goto end
30
31:NOCD-NO386
32goto end
33
34:MIN
35LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:OPTICAL
36goto end
37
38:end
39set config=

I heard there are better alternatives to doskey which use a lower memory footprint but gives the same features, I use it to get back on history commands and autocomplete.

Any advice is very much appreciated.

Your configs with himem.sys only (no emm386.exe) will not provide UMB. Or do you have a UMB driver somewhere hidden?
himem.sys only is important, when you want to run programs in real mode. Without UMB the free memory will be (I think) below 600000 bytes for sure. All the devicehigh and loadhigh statements will not work without UMB of course.

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-04-03, 19:29:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2024-04-01, 07:58:

Hello fellow vogonians, in years of collecting old pc I developed a good general boot configuration for my dos 7.1 retropc (with […]
Show full quote

Hello fellow vogonians, in years of collecting old pc I developed a good general boot configuration for my dos 7.1 retropc (without windows 98) aimed to have a good compatibility and enough free conventional memory, starting from the phil boot disk configuration.
Since everything is perfectible in this world I'm looking for some advices aimed to further improve the configuration.
The files I'm going to paste are good from 486 onward, some program is not compatible with 386 machines (where anyway I use with dos 6), but I can't remember which.
The version I'm using allows me to have 626kb of conventional memory free, 157kb of upper memory free, xms (or ems) and cd driver, mouse driver plus unisound for a good compatibility with sound cards, to reach this result I obviously had to use different memory managers but I left the option to fall back to the old "good" himem.sys so if something doesn't work I can check with a more "vanilla configuration".

That's the config.sys:

Copy code to clipboard

1[MENU]
2menuitem=CD-NOEMS,    CD-ROM + Memoria Estesa
3menuitem=CD-EMS,      CD-ROM + Memoria Espansa
4menuitem=CD-NO386,    CD-ROM senza EMM386
5menuitem=NOCD-NOEMS,  Memoria Estesa
6menuitem=NOCD-EMS,    Memoria Espansa
7menuitem=NOCD-NO386,  Memoria Convenzionale
8menuitem=MIN,		  Configurazione Safe
9
10menudefault=CD-NOEMS, 10
11menucolor = 7,0
12
13[COMMON]
14SWITCHES=/E:288 /F
15DOS=HIGH,UMB,AUTO
16BUFFERSHIGH=15,0
17FILESHIGH=40
18FCBSHIGH=4,0
19STACKSHIGH=9,256
20LASTDRIVEHIGH=E
21COUNTRY=039,850,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
22
23[CD-NOEMS]
24DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
25DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS NOVCPI HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
26rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
27DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
28DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
29rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
30DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
31DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /H /D:OPTICAL
32
33[CD-EMS]
34DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
35DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
36rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
37DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
38DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
39rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
40DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
41DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /H /D:OPTICAL
42
43[CD-NO386]
44DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
45DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
46DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /S10
47DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /D:OPTICAL
48
49[NOCD-NOEMS]
50DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
51DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS NOVCPI HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
52rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
53DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
54DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
55DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
56
57[NOCD-EMS]
58DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
59DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
60rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF

…Show last 14 lines

61DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
62DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
63DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
64
65[NOCD-NO386]
66DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
67DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
68DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
69
70[MIN]
71DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
72DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
73DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL

Here is the autoexec.bat:

Copy code to clipboard

1@ECHO OFF
2PROMPT $p$g
3PATH C:\DOS;C:\UTIL
4SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
5MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((850) C:\DOS\EGA.CPI)
6MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=850
7LH C:\UTIL\CTMOUSE.EXE /R2
8C:\UTIL\KEYB.EXE IT
9LH C:\UTIL\DOSKEY.COM
10C:\UTIL\UNISOUND.COM /V75 /VW75 /VF75 /VL00 /VC75 /VM00
11goto %config%
12
13:CD-NOEMS
14C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
15goto end
16
17:CD-EMS
18C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
19goto end
20
21:CD-NO386
22C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
23goto end
24
25:NOCD-NOEMS
26goto end
27
28:NOCD-EMS
29goto end
30
31:NOCD-NO386
32goto end
33
34:MIN
35LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:OPTICAL
36goto end
37
38:end
39set config=

I heard there are better alternatives to doskey which use a lower memory footprint but gives the same features, I use it to get back on history commands and autocomplete.

Any advice is very much appreciated.

Your configs with himem.sys only (no emm386.exe) will not provide UMB. Or do you have a UMB driver somewhere hidden?
himem.sys only is important, when you want to run programs in real mode. Without UMB the free memory will be (I think) below 600000 bytes for sure. All the devicehigh and loadhigh statements will not work without UMB of course.

No the conventional memory only doesn't provide any umb, do you have any suggestion about it? That way is used for programs which need to run in real mode.

Nemo1985 wrote on 2024-04-03, 19:34:

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-04-03, 19:29:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2024-04-01, 07:58:

Hello fellow vogonians, in years of collecting old pc I developed a good general boot configuration for my dos 7.1 retropc (with […]
Show full quote

Hello fellow vogonians, in years of collecting old pc I developed a good general boot configuration for my dos 7.1 retropc (without windows 98) aimed to have a good compatibility and enough free conventional memory, starting from the phil boot disk configuration.
Since everything is perfectible in this world I'm looking for some advices aimed to further improve the configuration.
The files I'm going to paste are good from 486 onward, some program is not compatible with 386 machines (where anyway I use with dos 6), but I can't remember which.
The version I'm using allows me to have 626kb of conventional memory free, 157kb of upper memory free, xms (or ems) and cd driver, mouse driver plus unisound for a good compatibility with sound cards, to reach this result I obviously had to use different memory managers but I left the option to fall back to the old "good" himem.sys so if something doesn't work I can check with a more "vanilla configuration".

That's the config.sys:

Copy code to clipboard

1[MENU]
2menuitem=CD-NOEMS,    CD-ROM + Memoria Estesa
3menuitem=CD-EMS,      CD-ROM + Memoria Espansa
4menuitem=CD-NO386,    CD-ROM senza EMM386
5menuitem=NOCD-NOEMS,  Memoria Estesa
6menuitem=NOCD-EMS,    Memoria Espansa
7menuitem=NOCD-NO386,  Memoria Convenzionale
8menuitem=MIN,		  Configurazione Safe
9
10menudefault=CD-NOEMS, 10
11menucolor = 7,0
12
13[COMMON]
14SWITCHES=/E:288 /F
15DOS=HIGH,UMB,AUTO
16BUFFERSHIGH=15,0
17FILESHIGH=40
18FCBSHIGH=4,0
19STACKSHIGH=9,256
20LASTDRIVEHIGH=E
21COUNTRY=039,850,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
22
23[CD-NOEMS]
24DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
25DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS NOVCPI HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
26rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
27DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
28DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
29rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
30DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
31DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /H /D:OPTICAL
32
33[CD-EMS]
34DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
35DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
36rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
37DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
38DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
39rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
40DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
41DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /H /D:OPTICAL
42
43[CD-NO386]
44DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
45DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
46DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /S10
47DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /D:OPTICAL
48
49[NOCD-NOEMS]
50DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
51DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS NOVCPI HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
52rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
53DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
54DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
55DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
56
57[NOCD-EMS]
58DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
59DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
60rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF

…Show last 14 lines

61DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
62DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
63DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
64
65[NOCD-NO386]
66DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
67DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
68DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
69
70[MIN]
71DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
72DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
73DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL

Here is the autoexec.bat:

Copy code to clipboard

1@ECHO OFF
2PROMPT $p$g
3PATH C:\DOS;C:\UTIL
4SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
5MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((850) C:\DOS\EGA.CPI)
6MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=850
7LH C:\UTIL\CTMOUSE.EXE /R2
8C:\UTIL\KEYB.EXE IT
9LH C:\UTIL\DOSKEY.COM
10C:\UTIL\UNISOUND.COM /V75 /VW75 /VF75 /VL00 /VC75 /VM00
11goto %config%
12
13:CD-NOEMS
14C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
15goto end
16
17:CD-EMS
18C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
19goto end
20
21:CD-NO386
22C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
23goto end
24
25:NOCD-NOEMS
26goto end
27
28:NOCD-EMS
29goto end
30
31:NOCD-NO386
32goto end
33
34:MIN
35LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:OPTICAL
36goto end
37
38:end
39set config=

I heard there are better alternatives to doskey which use a lower memory footprint but gives the same features, I use it to get back on history commands and autocomplete.

Any advice is very much appreciated.

Your configs with himem.sys only (no emm386.exe) will not provide UMB. Or do you have a UMB driver somewhere hidden?
himem.sys only is important, when you want to run programs in real mode. Without UMB the free memory will be (I think) below 600000 bytes for sure. All the devicehigh and loadhigh statements will not work without UMB of course.

No the conventional memory only doesn't provide any umb, do you have any suggestion about it? That way is used for programs which need to run in real mode.

For (early) PCI boards there is this UMBPCI program.
For the Asus VL/I board I use this:
DOS conventional memory for ASUS VL/I-486SV2GX4
There is also this URAM mentioned. I don't think it is possible to be completely hardware independent, because the UMB drivers are hardware dependant.

Thank you for the tip.
I just checked: conventional memory + cd drivers gives me 573kb of conventional memory, it goes up to 581kb without the cd driver. I don't know if it would be enough to run even the most memory hungry programs or not.
I knew umbpci, which as you said it's fine for pci chipsets, while for older 486, 386, it's quite a mess to find the right umb manager :\

I'm testing the stuff through pcem and I don't know if it is a limit of the emulator but apparently umbpci is unable to recognize the chipset even when it's a common 430hx

I find Phil's menu entries overly complex and needlessly confusing. Personally, I prefer to keep a few copies of AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS in separate folders and use them as needed.

As for freeing up conventional memory, there are a bunch of tips for that in this thread. For me, undoing all of my manual tweaks and then running MEMMAKER.EXE provided the best results. I ended up with 614KB of free conventional memory, which is fine for most of the games that I play. BTW, the MEMMAKER utility is for DOS 6.22 and I'm not sure if it would work for 7.1.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-04-03, 21:06:

I find Phil's menu entries overly complex and needlessly confusing

I also think less is more and go with compatibility over everything else. (so EMM386, MSCDEX)
I've only got 2 menu options EMS and XMS with XMS
XMS is the most used, I'm not going to win any most free memory awards but even with drives loaded for network games, and windows 3.11 (on dos 6 machines) it'll play 98% of my games
for the 1 or 2 games that don't like a driver or whatever I'll simply rem out the line temporally and reboot.

chinny22: I know that Win98's DOS has an option at boot that will allow you to choose to run only certain device drivers at start-up. Just press F8 before the splash screen and choose the right option. IIRC, DOS 6.x also had it. I think DOS 6.0 could only do this in config.sys but 6.2 can do it also in autoexec.bat. Try it out!

This step-by-step confirmation also works in DOS 7.10.
First config.sys is processed and afterwards you will be asked if autoexec.bat should be processed.

I used to believe you only need a single config, and all those menus are redundant. That's because I got 620K free RAM with XMS, EMS and all TSRs I wanted, in a single config.

However, as was mentioned here, I later learned that a lot of success with UMBs and EMS depends on your system - chipset, peripherals etc. Sound cards can get finicky, a handful of games may require real mode, etc.
If you have a simple SS7 setup with a well-behaved sound card that needs no complex TSRs, your single config may work 98% of the time, and for the couple of games that it won't work for - reboot and just press F5 may be sufficient. Or do the step-by-step confirmation.

However, if you frequently switch between a couple of games that need different configs, or have several sound devices that require "special treatment", or something like that, then a boot menu is convenient. So perhaps Phil's config is too bloated for most situations if you use it "as is", but as a template - it is good.

dr_st wrote on 2024-04-05, 12:22:

I used to believe you only need a single config, and all those menus are redundant. That's because I got 620K free RAM with XMS, […]
Show full quote

I used to believe you only need a single config, and all those menus are redundant. That's because I got 620K free RAM with XMS, EMS and all TSRs I wanted, in a single config.

However, as was mentioned here, I later learned that a lot of success with UMBs and EMS depends on your system - chipset, peripherals etc. Sound cards can get finicky, a handful of games may require real mode, etc.
If you have a simple SS7 setup with a well-behaved sound card that needs no complex TSRs, your single config may work 98% of the time, and for the couple of games that it won't work for - reboot and just press F5 may be sufficient. Or do the step-by-step confirmation.

However, if you frequently switch between a couple of games that need different configs, or have several sound devices that require "special treatment", or something like that, then a boot menu is convenient. So perhaps Phil's config is too bloated for most situations if you use it "as is", but as a template - it is good.

Uhm don't you need at least 3 configurations? Like: plain real mode, xms and ems? You can have both at the same time?
The cd drivers are maybe a bit redundant but when I use a test machine I never use a cd drive so...

Nemo1985 wrote on 2024-04-05, 13:00:

Uhm don't you need at least 3 configurations? Like: plain real mode, xms and ems? You can have both at the same time?

XMS and EMS are not mutually exclusive. EMM386 (and similar tools) emulate EMS using XMS. Add sound, mouse and CD drivers - and you have everything you need in a single config.

The reasons for an alternate config can be:
* Games that require real mode or just have compatibility issues with EMM386 (not many such games)
* Your system does not give you enough UMBs to load all the drivers + have enough conventional memory for some of the conventional memory-hungry games

I recommend using QEMM if possible. It has some compatibility issues but consistently gives more UMB. Also, if you're not using QEMM, you might want to tweak your memory configuration manually. If you have DOS's MEMMAKER, it can optimize your memory for you. Just remove all the DEVICEHIGHs and LHs and run MEMMAKER. I don't know if it can handle multiple configs, though. When I first got my current Win98SE computer, I was playing with its DOS setup, I found using QEMM's MANIFEST 64k usable UMB memory that EMM386 simply didn't detect. Making all of it available stopped the system from working, but 32k of it was doable. If you want to try these, I recommend that you back up the config files first. Was this helpful?

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-04-05, 14:46:

I recommend using QEMM if possible. It has some compatibility issues but consistently gives more UMB. Also, if you're not using QEMM, you might want to tweak your memory configuration manually. If you have DOS's MEMMAKER, it can optimize your memory for you. Just remove all the DEVICEHIGHs and LHs and run MEMMAKER. I don't know if it can handle multiple configs, though. When I first got my current Win98SE computer, I was playing with its DOS setup, I found using QEMM's MANIFEST 64k usable UMB memory that EMM386 simply didn't detect. Making all of it available stopped the system from working, but 32k of it was doable. If you want to try these, I recommend that you back up the config files first. Was this helpful?

I can tell you (because I used it in the past) that obviously memmaker doesn't work on different configs (it needs to be rerunned), I'm also unsure if it works on dos 7.1

Oh. Sorry! I'm just worried that your configs could be more efficient, as you don't specify which region in UMBs to put your drivers and TSRs. I have before optimized DOS config files manually, partly because I didn't know at the time that I could run QEMM's OPTIMIZE with a PIF file. I enjoyed doing it, but it was time-consuming. It involved a lot of trial-and-error, many reboots and repeated "MEM/D./P."

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-04-05, 15:29:

Oh. Sorry! I'm just worried that your configs could be more efficient, as you don't specify which region in UMBs to put your drivers and TSRs. I have before optimized DOS config files manually, partly because I didn't know at the time that I could run QEMM's OPTIMIZE with a PIF file. I enjoyed doing it, but it was time-consuming. It involved a lot of trial-and-error, many reboots and repeated "MEM/D./P."

Yes I get what you mean, definitely enjoying but time consuming.
I was thinking that maybe memmaker could be ran with the help of setver... I will give it a try in a virtual machine later.