Hi folks, as most of you might know, this Summer I got a bunch of retro hardware, including several computers.
One of these computers is an AST BRAVO 486/25 with 4MB "proprietary" SIMM RAM, no other SIMMs fit those slots, so currently I cannot upgrade it at all.
I "borrowed" the hardisk from my Olivetti M4 434S (since it's currently off limits, due to graphical problems), installed it in that computer and got my DR. DOS 7.03 working, most games do work, some perfectly, others laggy.
I tried a lot of Apogee games, ID software (Commander Keen) and I even tried to run some Epic Megagames games.
Duke Nukem 2, Monster Bash, Ken's Labyrinth, Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall 2097, Doom, Doom 2 and other games don't start at all, not for the 486 DX2 (which probably is the only decent thing in that PC), but for low memory.
Duke Nukem 2 require at least 2 and something MB, while I have roughly 687 kb free with the OS "just booted" and with EVERYTHING I need (Sound Blaster drivers and CD-ROM drive) loaded in high memory (LH).
So... what exactly is this computer for ? What's the maximum I can get out of 4MB of RAM, which don't even reach 4MB at all on DR. DOS 7.03 ?
Ah yes, I also have Windows 3.11 installed and it works 😁
Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
How do i only have 687KB of free conventional memory at boot then?
Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
How do i only have 687KB of free conventional memory at boot then?
Exactly because of that. Without HIMEM, no memory above 1 MB is visible to DOS. HIMEM gives you XMS; EMM386 will convert XMS to EMS, in case a game needs this instead of XMS.
ps: in DR DOS, names of the memory managers may differ. No idea, never used that...
But I see that's for Windows, so what's for Dr. DOS?
Last edited by Elia1995 on 2017-12-05, 07:53. Edited 1 time in total.
Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
He means it would be helpful to see what the command MEM /C displays to screen. 😀
If text goes away too fast, just add a /P parameter (/P for pause).
You can also enter MEM /C >mem.txt and get a text file.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
Here are the contents of my autoexec (autodos7.bat) and config (dconfig.sys) files:
AUTODOS7.BAT
1@ECHO OFF 2SET SOUND=C:\SB16 3SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6 4SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E 5C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S /W=C:\WINDOWS 6C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q 7REM LH /L:0;1,44048 /S C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE 8ECHO SmartDRV Disabled to save some memory ;) 9PATH C:\DRDOS;C:\NWCLIENT;C:\WINDOWS;%PATH%;C:\ 10PROMPT TIME Elia1995 $P$G 11SET DIRCMD=/4 12MODE CON: CP PREP=((850) C:\DRDOS\EGA.CPI) 13MODE CON CP PREPARE=((850)C:\DOS71\EGA.CPI) 14MODE CON CP SELECT=850 15KEYB IT+ 16REM LH /L:1,2912 KILLER 17DOSKEY 18LH /L:1,15408 DOSLFN /Z:C:\DOS71\CP850UNI.TBL 19REM Remove the "REM" on the below command when testing the Celeron rig to get CD working 20REM LH MSCDEX /D:IDE-CD 21SHARE /L:30 22REM LH NLSFUNC 23REM LH SMARTDRV 24REM LH /L:0;1,3328 /S CTMOUSE 25REM For compatibility purpose: 26REM CTMOUSE > NUL 27ECHO. 28LH C:\DRDOS\DRMOUSE.COM 29REM For locking volumes to enable "direct disk access": 30LOCK /T:1 31BREAK ON 32LFNFOR ON 33ECHO Now you are in Dr. DOS 7.03 prompt. Type 'HELP' for help. 34ECHO. 35EMM386 PIC=ON 36DPMI OFF 37VERIFY OFF 38SET DRDOSCFG=C:\DRDOS 39NLSFUNC C:\DRDOS\COUNTRY.SYS 40CHCP 437 41NWCACHE 7670 1024 /LEND=ON /DELAY=OFF 42REM Enable the below CALL to get working CD with the parallel port when using the 486 rig: 43CALL C:\CDCONNEC.BAT 44CD\ 45REM CALL C:\GIOCHI\MENU.BAT 46REM C:\WINDOWS NET START 47REM C:\WINDOWS\LSL.COM 48REM C:\WINDOWS\ODIHLP.EXE
I have no idea what most of the lines mean, for example the "HISTORY=ON,512,ON" in the config or the "/L:*numbers*" part before loading certain things, like KILLER or CTMOUSE (which are all "REM"med, so they don't load at all anyway).
I do have it dual boot with MS-DOS 7.10, both systems work perfectly and both give me the exact same memory issues, although when I had this hardisk in the Olivetti, every game I had here worked perfectly and used all the 16MB of RAM it had !!! So why now it doesn't read these 4 megabytes ? They're all detected correctly in the computer startup, and in "mem" aswell, I only have 627K of free DOS memory, though for some reason...
Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
Looks like you got all memory loaded by the system. Just to be shure....
You do know that largest executeable program is not the same as the total memory?
And you do know, that Dos has this 640k barrier, and the rest are just extended and expanded memory?
Looking at your screenshot, you have a computer that pretty much see all the memory in it.
Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....
Would a fresh 6.22 with just the Sound Blaster and LTP CD-ROM drivers help?
Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
Looks like you got all memory loaded by the system.
Doesn't look correct to me. 1.4 MB XMS memory are missing. There are 3.4 MB of XMS from which ~2 MB are converted to EMS. But the rest is not listed as available.
I'd recommend removing EMM386 from config.sys, as most games from 199x are using XMS anyway. It's important to understand that XMS and EMS are not interchangeable. If a game needs 2 MB XMS then it's completely irrelevant how much EMS memory is available. (and vice-versa)
When Monster Bash starts, it gives me an error when I enable the sounds, because it needs 200k of EMS memory.
Jazz Jackrabbit requires 2,7 MB of free memory and it doesn't start at all.
I'm now gonna format the whole hardisk (not that I have anything to lose anyway...) and install a fresh MS-DOS 6.22, with the Sound Blaster, the LPT CD-ROM drivers and Windows 3.11.
Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
Pardon my curiosity - but specifically which computer is this? You did mention AST with a 25 MHz 486sx.
My first PC was the Bravo LP 4/25s and even though the machine was crappy as hell I would love to see one again... nostalgia hits harder with age, apparently.
"an occasional fart in their general direction would provide more than enough cooling" —PCBONEZ
This is the only photo I have it for now, I'll take a good picture of it later:
Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
Looks like you got all memory loaded by the system.
Doesn't look correct to me. 1.4 MB XMS memory are missing. There are 3.4 MB of XMS from which ~2 MB are converted to EMS. But the rest is not listed as available.
I'd recommend removing EMM386 from config.sys, as most games from 199x are using XMS anyway. It's important to understand that XMS and EMS are not interchangeable. If a game needs 2 MB XMS then it's completely irrelevant how much EMS memory is available. (and vice-versa)
Well... That is true... He only mentioned that he had a little over 640k avaliable.
I only read the 3.xxx portion and as stupid as I am, I just asumed.
Well... Need to do better in the future, stupid me. 😁
So I read that he thought that he could not get past some 640kb to 700kb Ram loaded.
Anyway...
I think he will have better luck, sticking to MS-Dos-6.22. I think there are software issues on his installation.
Or some of the chips on one of his modules, might be bad. I truly think the motherboard it self are perfectly fine.
Yet, as I only have used Microsoft Dos and neighter DR nor IBM Dos, then I can not give any advice on his setup files.
Last edited by brostenen on 2017-12-05, 14:28. Edited 1 time in total.
Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....
Elia1995 wrote:It's an AST BRAVO 486/25 […] Show full quote
It's an AST BRAVO 486/25
This is the only photo I have it for now, I'll take a good picture of it later:
Looking at that picture, you might want to clean the sim modules and slots as well.
Looks a bit dirty on that photo, and a cleanup might do the trick in combination with MS Dos 6.22.
Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....
Yes I long cleaned the whole motherboard since I got it back in July.
Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
Those look like standard 72-pinn SIMMs to me. Are we sure he can only use 4MB? He might be able to bump up to 8MB or even 16MB. And yes, those contacts look corroded/dirty as all hell. Get some DeoxIt contact cleaner and a good cloth or even a paper towel and clean that stuff. You can spray DeoxIt right on the contact sockets after you remove the RAM. An old toothbrush will clean all the contacts. Let it dry and then reinstall the (cleaned) RAM.