What is the game?

Type mem at the Dos prompt and show as the result.

Have you ran memmaker yet?

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-05-24, 04:23:

What lines do I need to add to the autoexec.bat and config.sys to fix this ?

Don't you think it would be useful to know what you have in there already?

He has put a crap load of Dos systems together. So not knowing the basics seems a bit strange.

Doing stuff doesn't mean you know what you are doing. 😉

But knowing how to correctly ask for help should be known by someone with >2700 posts. Name of the game not given, text of the error message not given, nor any info about how much memory is actual available in DOS currently.

Output of "mem /c/p" is needed, as well as a dump of your config.sys and autoexec.bat. And please tell us what game, as it may have very special requirements (like Ultima 7 for example).

I had this 6gb harddrive laying around so I used it in this build. It turn out it had an old install of DOS 6.22 with tools and stuff.
So I just used it. I will clean up the config files later. Right now I just want to get the games to work.
This drive also has Win3.11 installed.
I am using a Sound Blaster AWE32.

Everything appears to be working okay. Audio is working fine in DOS and Win3.11

I just need to get this memory problem fixed.

Games I have tried to play are:
Falcon Gold
Wing commander-1

I have one ( 64mb DIMM ) installed.

I'm assuming that your DOS game is not a protected mode game (using a DOS extender like DOS 4G/W), but a real mode game? Both games you mentioned are real mode games.

I can already see you do not have enough conventional memory available.
You need to load DOS High and also load EMM386.EXE (if your DOS game allows for it) and load as many tsr's and device drivers into the upper memory area.

Having a multiple boot menu configuration will also help - How to create a boot (start up) menu under Windows 9x/ME.
This is for a Win9x configuration, but also applies to DOS 6.22. Under DOS 6.22, MS-DOS.SYS & Dosstart.bat does not apply.

Okay, I used these posted suggestions and it appears to be working fine.
AWE32 audio and game playback is good in 386 and 486 mode also.

Thanks guys.

Running maker would have sorted the out of memory issue in a flash.

640k ought to be enough for anyone... still biting 39 years later haha

Caluser2000 wrote on 2020-05-24, 18:01:

Running maker would have sorted the out of memory issue in a flash.

Memmaker is one of the worst programs ever written by MS. All it does is brute-forcing and often fucking up your system. For example if you have device drivers that depend on each other (like the IDE port of some sound cards, which require a .sys file to be loaded before you can load the actual CD-ROM driver). Memmaker will arbitrarily move these around to see if there's more memory free after that - not caring about any loading order they may require. I wouldn't recommend using Memmaker to anyone.

Learning and understanding how config.sys and autoexec.bat work will not only get you further, it also helps you fixing problems next time.

I disagree completely. Never ever had an issue on ANY of my Dos systems over 38 odd years of using memmaker. Run then it then do tweaks afterward.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2020-05-24, 19:36:

over 38 odd years of using memmaker.

What kind of memmaker is that which exists since 1982? Certainly not the one we are talking about. But if you kept using memmaker for 38 years, you probably don't know what it does to your system anyway. Why would anyone use memmaker if he/she had the knowledge to optimize the startup files by hand? And if you say: "then do tweaks afterward", you kind of admit that it doesn't do things the way you want.

It was ment to be 28 years. Lol Memmaker saves a lot of time fucking about. Giving you plenty on conventional memory for programs right from the out set. Same goes for PCDos 6.x ups Ramboot.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2020-05-24, 19:43:

It was ment to be 28 years. Lol Memmaker saves a lot of time fucking about.

Memmaker is no end all be all solution for everything, but it can be a good starting point for memory optimization or even, in some simpler scenarios, simply good enough in and of itself.

darry wrote on 2020-05-24, 19:51:

Caluser2000 wrote on 2020-05-24, 19:43:

It was ment to be 28 years. Lol Memmaker saves a lot of time fucking about.

Memmaker is no end all be all solution for everything, but it can be a good starting point for memory optimization or even, in some simpler scenarios, simply good enough in and of itself.

My point exactly.

It seems his main problem was not having DOS=HIGH in config.sys, right?
It was always confusing that DOS=HIGH isn't referring to upper memory (and therefore works even on a 286), while the high LH (LOADHIGH) actually means upper memory and requires emm386.
I don't know that I've ever dropped below 500k conventional memory even by accident.

About 560k has been my lowest. Memmaker was a reaction to DR Doss' memmax. And in MS/PC Dos 5 it was not uncommon to use programs such as Quarterdecks' expanded memory manager 386. All the PC mags at the time were recommending these tools to increase conventional memory.