😕 😕 😕 😕 😕 😕

please help, forums are endless, threads, topics, i have read dosbox documentation, copied some of your responses, kicked, screamed and cried etc....

I taught myself to use dosbox a couple of years ago to a certain level of satisfaction, and I had thousands of games running on xp.

I just got a laptop with far more powerful specs than my old damaged one that is running on Vista.

I simply copied the dosbox file from xp program files and pasted it into my vista program files and it works just fine using my prefered method of dragging .exe icons to the dosbox .exe without needing to be re installed in vista.

** The problem is trying to run programs in fullscreen in vista, they work fine in window, then become too slow and jerky when expanded.

I have played with my .conf file, i have tried dynamic, max, auto, setting my own aspect ratio, and making it auto, adjusting for aspect conversion, setting memory to 16 and then to 32, I have tried different combinations of the above, and have not found a setting that makes games acceptably playable.

The frustrating thing is that a european site offers some of it's games in prepackaged self installing folders with dosbox configurations that mount an .iso within each game folder by the user merely clicking an .exe icon, and these work fine.

I tried copying the .conf files in these folders for the .conf file in my universal dosbox file and I can't replicate the same conditions.

Also, i cannot type a goddamn frigging \ in dos prompts the \ key does nothing, and I can't find the key/key combo that works to produce a \ in the prompt.

Help me obi wan kenobi you're my only hope!

Go to www.dosbox.com and download the latest version, then install that,
and adapt the dosbox.conf as necessary (you might need admin rights to
apply changes though).

Also, i cannot type a goddamn frigging \ in dos prompts the \ key does nothing, and I can't find the key/key combo that works to produce a \ in the prompt.

Please check the readme.

Thank you for your swift reply.

I have been running version 0.72 for a couple of years, there is no version I know more advanced or compatible than the one I am running now.

0.72 is out for a bit more than one year, so whatever you had before please
INSTALL dosbox rather than copying it from another pc and reconfigure it.

I wasn't speaking literally, what I meant was that I have been running version 0.72 since it was released and I regularly check for new versions of it because like the creators of it, I am eagerly awaiting the version that will be able to run every video game ever made with relative ease.

I have not tried installing it onto vista yet because it worked as it was, and I could find where I had put the installer for 0.72. I have now got a new installer and I will try that, but I have one of those sinking cynical feelings that when I am able to get to the laptop and try it will not work.

If it does, thanks for the very obvious advice, if not, in 10 to 20 hours or so I will be back on this forum to seek more advice and google possible solutions, in the meantime can you tell me if anyone else has had this problem on a powerful vista laptop after installing it correctly? Or is my not installing the program directly the sole cause of the problem?

I run dosbox on vista on a laptop, but it is not particularly powerful (the laptop).

Mine in basic, is

2.0ghz dual core 2 processor

512 to 1 gb ram including virtual ram ati radeon or invidia

and 3gb system ram

screen resolution is 1280 x 800

I know that is not top end but it's fairly high and can run any game on the market now except i am told that new one crysis which would still run with some reduction in quality.

So could I ask, did you just install 0.72 on your vista laptop and then run it without issue?

Did you need modifications to the conf file?

Also, does your screen match the aspect of the old games or is it widescreen like mine?

DosFreak wrote:

User: "King Quiot 2....say's somethg 'bout resource?"

Vogons[' Answering machine] :
"No, King Quoit [muffled giggles, vocal DNA pattern: DosFreak] says

13 I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God […]
Show full quote

13 I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

gidierre wrote:

Vogons['s Answering machine] : "No, King Quoit [muffled giggles, vocal DNA pattern: DosFreak] says […]
Show full quote

DosFreak wrote:

User: "King Quiot 2....say's somethg 'bout resource?"

Vogons['s Answering machine] :
"No, King Quoit [muffled giggles, vocal DNA pattern: DosFreak] says

13 I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God […]
Show full quote

13 I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

Umm, Vexly off-topic.

Still having large issues with speed and jerkiness running dosbox 0.72 on windows Vista, and that is what this thread is supposedly about, are there any experts who can HELP me?

I have freshly installed, I have tried Dynamic and cycles MAX, I have tried lots of things, I cannot get it to work like it did on XP.......

Patrick benatar wrote:

So could I ask, did you just install 0.72 on your vista laptop and then run it without issue?

well, basically it's so (Vista 32bit)

Patrick benatar wrote:

Did you need modifications to the conf file?
Also, does your screen match the aspect of the old games or is it widescreen like mine?

that's the [sdl] section in the .conf

to avoid the nasty stretched output
you can start trying these

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface

fullresolution=
also try with your native res. e.g. fullresolution=1440x900 or whatever

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface

that is the default setting that it installs for itself when you install the 0.72 program and it doesn't work in fullscreen for me, except I use fullscreen=false in case a game file is corrupt and I need control panel or toobar then use alt-enter, and then it runs but is jumpy with speed and sound

I did try "full resolution=1280x800" and it fits the screen in black with a tiny screen in the middle of the black frame, this is no good.

I ran Doom 3 with highest quality visual settings as a test and that was no problem there was no lagging, I can't BELIEVE that Dosbox could be so demanding on resources as to run so slow, in addition to speed problems sometimes, (and also when I ran it on XP) the colours would all turn to "Rainbow" like a negative image
and sometimes the whole screen would be covered with black and would have to be "wiped off" with the cursor bit by bit, there are so many problems with this program, I am really fed up. I am missing my old games.

Patrick benatar wrote:

fullscreen=true fulldouble=false fullresolution=original windowresolution=original output=surface […]
Show full quote

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface

that is the default setting that it installs for itself when you install the 0.72 program and it doesn't work in fullscreen for me, except I use fullscreen=false in case a game file is corrupt and I need control panel or toobar then use alt-enter, and then it runs but is jumpy with speed and sound

I was not saying: copy this
I meant: that's what you should start tweaking from

if you searched the Forum archives, you'd find valuable info like this one by Ripa
Resolution/Aspect Ratio settings for a widescreen
browse and start implementing what the expert says (and that's Ripa, not me 😜 )
HTH

Thanks for offering some advice, I didn't copy what you said verbatim, I'm not even at my computer, I'm saying that IS where I started tweaking a couple of days ago, the only joy was adding the scaler=ddraw but it kept crashing even though it sped things up.

I have had a quick look at what ripa is saying, and have cut and pasted the whole thread so I can look through in depth when I have more time and try some of it out.

Any thoughts on the other two problems I mentioned? the colours switching to rainbow negative and the whole screen blacking out and having to wipe the black parts away with the cursor? Has anyone experienced that on Vista or XP? I have had it periodically on both, any forums addressing these problems?

but it kept crashing even though it sped things up.

Uhm and you didn't think about a driver problem yet, right?

no, I didn't consider that, It is a brand new laptop, it has operational vista, and It runs lots of things, just not very well when it comes to dosbox, If anyone can suggest any drivers, sites to get them from forums etc.....

well DOSBox is very cpu heavy. not graphic heavy. Sure it doesn't get too warm ?

It does yes. I might get a laptop cooler board thing, that little cpu/clock gizmo desktop gadget widget thing that comes with vista sometimes says 100% cpu usage when Dosbox is closing. I tried to increase the virtual paging file for windows itself rather than having it system managed but how high is high enough for the file? I set the minimum paging file for about 1500mb higher than it suggested, and the maximum I think 75000 or something how high should I set it? I have included the specs for my system higher in the forum thread.

dosbox doesn't use much memory. 50 mb or so. so the pagefile setting is useless for dosbox.
you could try lowering the cpu of dosbox a bit.
open dosbox.conf (as administrator)
look for the line
cycles=auto
change that to
cycles=auto 80%
this means that dosbox will use 80 % of your cpu power. (at least that it what it tries)
futher look for output=surface, change that output=ddraw
maybe that will help a bit with your system

"Brand new vista laptop" usually means "far outdated graphics drivers".