Have you run the 4Dos config utility? It has memory settings in there - I'm fairly sure both XMS and UMB are options.

You can LH the kstacks utility, but in normal use I don't really need it, so save a few k/few hundred bytes by not loading it at all.

I am reading the docs for 4Dos and trying to follow this post here, MS-DOS 6.22 Memory Optimizations (Conventional free: 643.600 (629K)). I set the 4dos.ini to UMBload=YES and got part of it into upper memory. But it is stubborn, I made a RAM drive and attempted to swap it to the ramdrive but it made no difference. there is 1kb stuck in conventional, the post shown has the whole thing removed from conventional.

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Your 4DOS version
Your DOS version
Your config/autoexec it will be easier to debug
Your hardware
it will be easier to help debugging

Did you try with another memomry manager? Like JEMMEX?

Ok, I will have to hand type it in by hand , not sure how to capture Dos screenshots native yet,
Dos 6.22 and Dos 7 aka win95 corrupted Dos - Same config for each - Started using menus to control the mess - Forgive any typos, the syntax is correct

Config.sys:

[MENU]
MENUITEM = Normal

[Normal]

NUMLOCK=ON
SWITCHES=/F
BREAK=ON

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /NUMHANDLES=128 /V
DEVICE=c:\WINDOWS\JEMM386.EXE I=B000-B7FF I=CC00-EAFF I=C800-CBEF I=EB07-EB79 A20 D=256 RAM
DOS=HIGH,UMB

Buffers=10
Files=40
FCBS=10,4
Stacks=9,256
Lastdrive=J

Shell=C:\Windows\4DOS\4DOS.COM c:\WINDOWS\4DOS\ @C:\WINDOWS\4DOS\4DOS.INI /P /E:1024 ----- with 4DoS.ini UMBload=Yes
DEVICEHIGH=C:\Windows\DOSMAX.EXE n+ P- r_ U02 U08 U09 U0A U0B U0C U0D U0E U70 U72 U73 U74 U76 U77 ---- Dosmax fails in Dos 7 but works in Dos 6.22 but comes out with the same conv memory
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\UIDEJR.SYS /H /D:MSCD000
DEVICEHIGH=C:\IFSHLP.SYS

Autoexec.bat:
Set Path=C:\WINDOWS;%PATH%
GoTo %config%
:Normal
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS
C:\PROGRA~1\Creative\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:G
LH C:\WINDOWS\CTMOUSE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SHSUCDX.COM /D:MSCD000 /L:D
C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE 2048 16 A+ C+ D /N /Q /B:8192 /E:32768 --- reduced memory footprint
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP

End result: weird - correction - LH /L:2 C:\Progra~1\Creative\DosDrv\SBEINIT.EXE ---- win95 or Creative modifies autoexec on boot erasing the loadhigh section interesting, its hellbent on being in conv memory

D0s 6.22 and 7 - End result: Everything is in upper memory except 4DOS which keeps its pawprint of 1k firmly in the conv memory.
Sbeinit and 4DOS fight each other for the Conv space. But even without Sbeinit 4DOS keeps its 1k , irritating
CONV Total 653,312 Used 12,768 Free 640,544
Upper Total 114,608 Used 51,536 Free 63,072
Extended Total 128,794,704 Used 7,038,032 Free 121,756,672
Total memory 129,562,624 Used 7,102,336 Free 703,616
Under 1mb Total 767,920 Used 64,304 Free 703,616
EMS 33,947,648 (32M)
Free Expanded (EMS) 33,275,904 (32m)
Largest executable size 640,512 (626k)
Largest free memory block (42K)

Thats the best I can do, with the best config I could come up with, spent a week or more on this, I really want that 1k! Darnit 4Dos why do you torture me ?
I have tried the other memory managers, all of them, they freeze the box and don't play nice with this machne jemm386 seems to be the best out of everything

4DOS afaik always uses a small bit of conventional memory. In my case 336 bytes. But it can be a bit more depending on the pc configuration etc.

Maybe try some more 4dos.ini UMB parameters. See screenshot what I use in my 4dos.ini.

Paladin PIP wrote on 2025-05-20, 07:02:

DEVICE=c:\WINDOWS\JEMM386.EXE I=B000-B7FF I=CC00-EAFF I=C800-CBEF I=EB07-EB79 A20 D=256 RAM

the b000-b7ff range is problematic. some graphics modes use this region of memory. I'd take it out. some apps will try and use it know it exists and will corrupt whatever you have there. this would be the first thing i'd remove if your having issues. its one of those oddball things, most apps will never touch it, some will...

I=C800-CBEF
I=CC00-EAFF
I=EB07-EB79

these are very odd ranges. the skipping 16 bytes between CBF0-CBFF and then 7 bytes from EB00-EB06... and whats at EB7A and up...
I dont trust these at all (without even seeing your machine 🤣, they could be right but I dont think so).

If those mem areas are free you should be able to use C800 to EBFF or even EFFF. odd place to put a 1k rom (ebff-efff)... and that address ef00 is not a rom extension offset, they must be on a 2k boundary. EBCO is not a 2k boundary, neither is EB00...

They are empty rom adapter regions and monochrome listed in the HMA , I used google Gemini to calculate boundrys on each end of the segments just in case. Like I stated this is a very very weird computer Asus Spax-M1 , very non-standard. It gave me 32k back. But the high memory usage for 4DOS persists even if I remove everything and use vanilla himem.sys and emm386, at least jemm386 forces things to load high sometimes even without a lh command. . Sometimes Command.com uses 2K less. But it is even harder to move into upper memory then 4dos.

Hooray! Holy cow! Your edits to 4DOS.ini kicked it out, thankyou thankyou, I just really wanted to see this machine go above 626, now it sits at 627. Thats probaly the max for this box unless there are any more edits to 4DOS or Dos settings that could yeild 1K more, The original post had 629k max .

Is there any to write protect autoexec.bat from win95, it keeps removing the LH from Sbeinit, strange behaviour

Paladin PIP wrote on 2025-05-20, 21:11:

Hooray! Holy cow! Your edits to 4DOS.ini kicked it out, thankyou thankyou, I just really wanted to see this machine go above 626, now it sits at 627. Thats probaly the max for this box unless there are any more edits to 4DOS or Dos settings that could yeild 1K more, The original post had 629k max .

Is there any to write protect autoexec.bat from win95, it keeps removing the LH from Sbeinit, strange behaviour

Good to hear. 😀 You can try to make it read-only (attrib +r autoexec.bat). But you need to make it read-write again if you want to edit the file of course (attrib -r).