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First post, by 69king

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I haven't played many DOS games in a while but a few days ago I got the urge to play Grand Prix 2. It installed OK, except it said I had no extended memory. Then when I try to run the game it doesn't start up at all. Even if I use VDMS. I then tried a few other old DOS games that I know worked before on my system and the same thing happens with them. With or without VDMS they simply end immediately after I run them. The problem is with later DOS games (mid 90's) that have stricter requirements.

I don't know what I have changed on my system to make these games not work.

any ideas?

Reply 1 of 10, by eL_PuSHeR

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If you are using real ms-dos, check your config.sys and autoexec.bat files. Also keep in mind that newer mainboards may have some problems for real ms-dos (no compatible sound hardware, no physical space for ems page frame, etc)...

Tried DOSBox 0.65?

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Reply 3 of 10, by AvalonH

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type 'Gp2 nosound' to find if the sound is stopping you from running the game/
Forget dosbox for this game, when GP2 came out in 96 it was so cpu demanding you could only play it in all it's glory years later, anything less than a p2-600mhz would struggle in svga with 25 fps.

Reply 4 of 10, by 69king

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OK, it seems that any DOS game from 1995 or later will not run at all in XP on my system. Using VDMS or not, they simply terminate immediately when I try to run them. This was not the case a few months ago.
Another thing, games pre-1995 that were working fine before are now
complaining about low conventional memory (but at least they run)

WTF have I done to my computer?????

Reply 5 of 10, by eL_PuSHeR

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Just a shot in the dark...

Replace both config.nt and autoexec.nt with backup copies from \WINDOWS\REPAIR folder.

Check your system for spyware/malware.

Intel i7 5960X
Gigabye GA-X99-Gaming 5
8 GB DDR4 (2100)
8 GB GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming (Gigabyte)

Reply 6 of 10, by MiniMax

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You have enabled some on-board device in BIOS? Search for BIOS + EMS + VDMSound.

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
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Reply 7 of 10, by 69king

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I've solved the problem. It was due to a windows update. I noticed that I had installed about 20 updates on january 20th and that seemed to coincide with the last time I had played some old dos games. I uninstalled all of those updates and now it works fine!!

the only thing is GP2 runs way too fast.

Reply 8 of 10, by gidierre

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69king wrote:

the only thing is GP2 runs way too fast.

Absolutely.
After reading your post, I felt that urge too and had to try and launch GP2 after many years of "pit stop" 😉 , first time ever under WinXP, installing from HD (bad luck trying it out with a .iso image), setting sound, ems, buffers & mscdex paraphernalia with VDMSound, it installs and works fine, but they seem to drive on steroids 🤣 500+ kph ? 😕 😵

GP2 with Dosbox... best results using gulikoza's cvs, but it's still too slow so far 😖 about 8 fps

swerving from jet propulsion to suboceanic racing.

Best performance I found was using Virtual PC, either virtual Dos 6.22 or Windows 95a (the latter is better by far) which as you probably know comes with soundblaster & S3 drivers : here's the good gameplay experience of 10 years ago or so, 25 fps and the right timing sensation.
It's true that's not quite a fair solution as far as WinXP is concerned..

Reply 9 of 10, by VirtuaIceMan

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Yeah GP2 does misbehave, or runs unplayably slow in DOSBox (good for taking screenshots easily though!).

Oh and if you press O to view Processor Occapancy it crashes!).

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