To access the RAM above the 1MB low memory, you need to use HIMEM and/or EMM386 depending on what the program wants.

You are most definitely not using anything above the low 1MB memory by just loading DOS.

How do i only have 687KB of free conventional memory at boot then?

Did you enable HIMEM or EMM386 in the AUTOEXEC.BAT?

Elia1995 wrote:

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...

I have this in the config.SYS:

1DEVICE=C:\Windows\HIMEM.SYS
2DOS=HIGH,UMB
3DEVICE=C:\Windows\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

But I see that's for Windows, so what's for Dr. DOS?

Output of mem /c ?

What?

Elia1995 wrote:

What?

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.

Ah, ok, here's a photo of MEM

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

DCONFIG.SYS:

1DEVICE=C:\DOS71\HIMEM.SYS
2REM DEVICE=C:\DRDOS\EMM386.EXE DPMI=OFF FRAME=NONE RAM
3DEVICE=C:\DRDOS\EMM386.EXE RAM
4DEVICE=C:\DRDOS\DPMS.EXE
5DOS=HIGH,UMB
6BUFFERS=80
7FILES=40
8LASTDRIVE=Z
9FCBS=4,4
10DEVICEHIGH=C:\CTCM\CTCM.EXE
11REM DEVICE=C:\DOS71\ECHO.SYS W/E/L/C/O/M/E /T/O  MS-DOS 7.10...
12REM DEVICE=C:\DOS71\ECHO.SYS C/O/P/Y/R/I/G/H/T M/I/C/R/O/S/O/F/T C/O/R/P. A/L/
13DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS71\ECHO.SYS E/L/I/A/1/9/9/5 /S/ /E/P/I/C /4/8/6 /R/I/G
14DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS71\ECHO.SYS /(/C/)/E/L/I/A/1/9/9/5 /2/0/1/6
15DEVICE=C:\DRDOS\SETVER.EXE
16REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS71\POWER.EXE
17REM DEVICE=C:\DOS71\VIDE-CPP.SYS /D:IDE-CD
18DEVICEHIGH=C:\DRDOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
19COUNTRY=44,,C:\DRDOS\COUNTRY.SYS
20SHELL=C:\DRDOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DRDOS\ /E:640 /P:AUTODOS7.BAT
21BREAK=OFF
22HISTORY=ON,512,ON
23REM ** FILES=30
24STACKS=9,256
25SET PATH:C\DRDOS;C:\WINDOWS;.

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...

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.

Would a fresh 6.22 with just the Sound Blaster and LTP CD-ROM drivers help?

brostenen wrote:

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.

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.

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:

derSammler wrote:

brostenen wrote:

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.

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.

Yes I long cleaned the whole motherboard since I got it back in July.

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.