So, what does mem /c report, when looking at XMS available?
What memory managers are loaded with which parameters?
How does the YMF driver uses memory?

Just having RAM SIMMs is not enough.

but what are your free memory numbers?

I am loading himem with only the testmem:on parameter. That is all I am using. The other sound card I normally use with 386's did not have this issue (ESS Audiodrive). Does mem /c come with DOS 6.22 or Win 3.11? If so, I'll run this tomorrow when I'm at the computer.

dos, the question is how much mem was eaten bu the new driver

Does mem /c come with DOS 6.22 or Win 3.11?

The /c parameter of mem.exe should even work with older DOS versions.
In my experience, sometimes you need a more advanced tool to display the memory map (mi from FreeDOS, manifest from QEMM etc.) but in most cases the DOS native mem command is just enough.

Programs and drivers that need a certain free UMA range or specific amount of free XMS can be a real PITA 🙁

I don't have that card, but perhaps the driver in question consumes too much memory ?
- Windows 3.1 does not only require XMS, but also a bit of conventional/UMB memory.
Please run "mem /c" to find out. "mem" is an external command and part of DOS..

Attached is the MEM /C result. Click for big. Any idea how to get Windows 3.11 going with this sound card? My concern is that the error of not enough extended memory might pop up for other scenarios which are not related to not enough extended memory, e.g. hardware compatibility.

The only thing that comes to my head is putting
DOS=high,umb
and maybe trying loading
device = path\emm386.exe NOEMS
in the config.sys

I am not sure at all that it would help, but this should make some upper memory usable. If Windows doesn't like 30MB of XMS that you definitely have, maybe there is a mistake in the error message displayed by Windows, and it actually needs some more upper memory. Still doesn't fit as it was running before with the same setup, but might be worth trying, doesn't take long.

Hmm, so you have no UMBs, DOS is in the HMA... I seem to remember that if you're going to load Windows, it's better to keep the HMA free because it likes to use the HMA better that DOS. Try to remove "DOS=HIGH" from your config.sys and see what happens. Also, you do need to load emm396.exe for Windows to work. Try first to add "device=emm386.exe noems" as suggested above; if that is not enough, then remove the "high" from the DOS parameters.

If it still fails after that, use jemmex.exe in config.sys instead of himem.sys and emm386.exe (add "device=jemmex.exe" at the beginning of config.sys and comment out the himem and emm386 lines)

Could you also try booting with only half the memory? Some programs will fail to work and crap out with an out-of-memory message when they see more RAM than they are programmed to expect. Windows should work fine with 32Mb of RAM, but I don't know about the soundcard drivers.

yawetaG wrote:

Could you also try booting with only half the memory? Some programs will fail to work and crap out with an out-of-memory message when they see more RAM than they are programmed to expect. Windows should work fine with 32Mb of RAM, but I don't know about the soundcard drivers.

This was one of the first things I tried, but 16 MB didn't help. If I revert back to my old system.ini file, Win3.11 boots fine. My old system.ini file is expecting my ESS sound card though. Anyway, I will try what the others suggested.

Adding DEVICE=EMM386.EXE /NOEMS after HIMEM did not solve the problem.
REM DOS=HIGH did not solve the problem.

I do not see JEMMEX.EXE located in c:\dos, nor c:\windows. Is it somewhere else? Note, I am using MS DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11

feipoa wrote:

Adding DEVICE=EMM386.EXE /NOEMS after HIMEM did not solve the problem.
REM DOS=HIGH did not solve the problem.

I do not see JEMMEX.EXE located in c:\dos, nor c:\windows. Is it somewhere else? Note, I am using MS DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11

Jemmex is not part of DOS, but of freeDOS. You can find it here: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/fre … 86/JEMM578B.zip

Before your response, I was able to locate jemmex from http://www.freedos.org/download/ and I coppied it over to the 386 system. After adding DEVICE=JEMMEX.EXE to the config.sys file, I now get the following error:

Cannot run Windows while the currently installed protected-mode software is running. Quit the protected-mode software, and then try again. You may need to restart your computer.

CAn you post your config.sys and autoexec.bat?

Next, I included REM DOS=HIGH along with DEVICE=JEMMEX.EXE. Now I receive the following error:

A device file that is specified in the SYSTEM.INI file is damaged. It may be needed to run Windows. You may need to run the Windows Setup program again. If the file is included in another software package, you may need to reinstall the software that uses the file
pageswap
Press a key to continue

Sounds like something is up with the sound card's drivers.

Here are the files you requested. Note that remarking the cyrix commands does not fix the issue.

Autoexec.bat

1SET BLASTER=A220 I5  D1 T4
2C:\OPL3SAX\SETUPSA.EXE /S
3REM Removed NIC C:\WINDOWS\NET START
4cyrix -b-
5cyrix -cd
6C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.EXE
7@ECHO OFF
8PROMPT $P$G
9PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\MOUSE;C:\DOS
10SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
11SET LMOUSE=C:\MOUSE
12REM C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X 2048 128
13REM for TSENG 4000/W32I VMODE 65M
14REM need to REMARK OUT THE MSCDEX LINE FOR WOLF3D TO WORK
15
16REM for Mach64 SET ATI_NOEE_M64=C:\ATI\UTILITY\EEDATA.EE_
17REM C:\ATI\UTILITY\CUSTOM.COM Q
18REM for CD-ROM C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:ASPICD0 /M:12 /L:D
19REM for ESS sound card C:\WINDOWS\ESSCFG.EXE /A:220 /I:5 /D:1 /B:330 /J:E
20REM for ESS sound card C:\WINDOWS\ESSVOL.EXE /V:8 /L:8 /W:8 /M:0 /C:8 /S:8 /A:8
21
22REM FOR VLSI CYRIX -F -M- -XA000,128 -XC000,256 WITH 1540C USE -B INSTEAD OF -F
23REM FOR VIA CYRIX -B-
24REM FOR UMC CYRIX -B- UNLESS USING ADAPTEC 1540C & SXL, THEN REM CYRIX -B-
25REM FOR SIS CYRIX -F -M- -XA000,128 -XC000,256
26REM FOR CHIPS CYRIX -E -F -M- -XA000,128 -XC000,256, USE -F- -B WITH 1540C AND SXL/DLC

config.sys

1DEVICE=JEMMEX.EXE
2DEVICE=C:\EZSCSI50\ASPI2DOS.SYS /D /P340 /Q11
3REM for 1540CP DEVICE=C:\EZSCSI50\ASPI4DOS.SYS /P134
4REM for 1540CP DEVICE=C:\EZSCSI50\ASPIBUF.SYS
5REM for SCSI CD-ROM DEVICE=C:\EZSCSI50\ASPICD.SYS /D:ASPICD0
6REM for ESS IDE connector DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\ES1868.COM /A:0 /I:0
7DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
8REM DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:Off
9REM DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE /NOEMS
10REM DEVICE=C:\DOS\smartdrv.exe /double_buffer
11
12DOS=HIGH
13FILES=30
14STACKS=9,256
15LASTDRIVE=Z
16DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS

Edit: I will resume this work in 20 hours. Any advice is appreciated.

could You please rem the new driver in those files and show us the mem result in that situation? also check if windows runs in this configuration

I already checked remarking the OPL3 driver in autoexec.bat and Win3.11 does not load. The issue is related to the lines in system.ini concerning the OPL3 audio driver.