In your config.sys, use DOS=HIGH,UMB to free up more conventional memory.

Robbbert wrote on 2026-07-25, 23:47:

In your config.sys, use DOS=HIGH,UMB to free up more conventional memory.

Thanks ! I managed to squeeze a little more into upper memory. It alters some of the names listed from mem /c/p and it resembles feipoa's configuration more, "IFSHLP" for example which was not listed before. Seeing some funny quirks of DOS.

All I did was a change from

1DOS=SINGLE            
2[COMMON]
3DOS=HIGH,UMB,NOAUTO

to

1[COMMON]
2DOS=HIGH,UMB

"DOS=SINGLE" is something Windows 98 likes to add. Not sure if what it does or if it matters. I removed it.

I'm also noting that whether I add

1DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS I=CE00-EFFF /V

or

1DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS /V

will result in exactly the same sizes reported. EMM386 auto detects a base address of CE00 and most likely extends to EFFF.
But, adding just "NOEMS" is probably a good place to start for a new unknown computer.

With MSD.EXE (Microsoft Diagnostics Version 3.01) there are "holes" I=A000-B7FF & I=CE00-EFFF but adding both to EMM386 actually result in less blocks available.
Isn't it possible to use both ranges? I suppose it only matters strategic. I'm happy as long as current needs fit into UMBs.

Anyway, my new best "Largest executable program size" is 609K.

1Modules using memory below 1 MB:
2  Name          Total           Conventional       Upper Memory
3  -------  ----------------   ----------------   ----------------
4  SYSTEM     34,368   (34K)      9,696    (9K)     24,672   (24K)
5  HIMEM       1,168    (1K)      1,168    (1K)          0    (0K)
6  EMM386      4,320    (4K)      4,320    (4K)          0    (0K)
7  DBLBUFF     2,976    (3K)      2,976    (3K)          0    (0K)
8  COMMAND    10,368   (10K)     10,368   (10K)          0    (0K)
9  ASPI8U2    27,312   (27K)          0    (0K)     27,312   (27K)
10  ASPICD     12,752   (12K)          0    (0K)     12,752   (12K)
11  IFSHLP      2,864    (3K)          0    (0K)      2,864    (3K)
12  CTMOUSE     3,328    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,328    (3K)
13  SHSUCDX     5,872    (6K)          0    (0K)      5,872    (6K)
14  COMMAND     6,976    (7K)          0    (0K)      6,976    (7K)
15  Free      674,400  (659K)    624,432  (610K)     49,968   (49K)
16
17Memory Sumary:
18
19  Type of Memroy       Total         Used          Free
20  ----------------  -----------   -----------   -----------
21  Conventional          653,312        28,880       624,432
22  Upper                 133,744        83,776        49,968
23  Reserved                    0             0             0
24  Extended (XMS)*    65,926,544       316,816    65,609,728
25  ----------------  -----------   -----------   -----------
26  Total memory       66,713,600       429,472    66,284,128
27
28  Total under 1 MB      787,056       112,656       674,400
29
30  Largest executable program size         623,392   (609K)
31  Largest free upper memory block          49,152    (48K)
32  MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.
33

Folks, please move this talk to a different thread

Kasreyn wrote on 2026-07-25, 13:26:

The board is a Abit AB-SM5 (HWiNFO identifies this as "IT5V")

The attachment IMG_20260725_143841.jpg is no longer available

I heavily guess this happens because the following of ABIT's motherboards share the same BIOS:

• AR5, IT5V (except V1.5), SM5 (except V1.5/1.51), SM5A (except V2.1)
• IT5V V1.5, SM5 V1.5/1.51, SM5A V2.1

I don't know if they can be distinguished by HWiNFO!? The BIOS versions can be found on my ABIT motherboard page -> https://soggi.org/motherboards/abit.htm, if needed.

kind regards
soggi

If they both use the same BIOS, then it can't be distinguished.

Mumak wrote on 2026-07-26, 12:27:

If they both use the same BIOS, then it can't be distinguished.

In this case the two boards (IT5V and SM5) are very, very similar - so I understand why they can't be distinguished by HWiNFO and don't understand why ABIT released both. But in other cases there are more different boards which share the same BIOS (f.e. AT/ATX variants or mATX/ATX variants or slot/socket variants) and they also can't be distinguished?

kind regards
soggi

In most cases it's not possible. Only if the BIOS would somehow detect a different board and expose the correct name via SMBIOS DMI. But that standard was used on later boards.

OK, thank you, Mumak!

kind regards
soggi

Ran version 6.2.7 on a Dell Optiplex GX1 with a PII350@233mhz.
First of all - excellent tool and I really dig the presentation and the interactivity(pressing certain elements to get more info)!

Only "hiccup" for me was that if I clean boot(no config.sys nor autoexec.bat) your tool hangs when activating "Info->Mainboard Info" after the "Second Level Cache:" detection yielding the "Fatal Error" window. Sometimes the window is missing though and it just hangs with a garbled string on the lowest line.

I'll give it a go on other systems - P66 & 486 based.

You could try to run it with the -d switch to produce a debug file (DBG).

Mumak wrote on 2026-07-27, 15:54:

You could try to run it with the -d switch to produce a debug file (DBG).

Ok, thanks - I did so(again clean boot) and it, interestingly, does not crash when started with the '-d' option.
The log file it produced is attached.