First post, by engk
My computer seems to have the rather common problem with EMS allocation with a unusual twist: It did not ever have this problem before.
I have been able to run games requiring EMS with no problems, but a couple of months ago, I realized that VDMsound could not initialize ems. I ignored it since the game I was playing used dosbox. I recently decided to fix it and realized it is a much bigger problem than just re-installing vdmsound.
Most posts refer to some sort of bios conflict, but it cannot be that with my computer as I did not have this problem before. I have not seen any post that mentions any conflict arising from software. Is this possible? The only hardware changes were a new mouse (with some program to use its extra buttons) and an extra combo drive.
Here's what mem/c looks like:
Conventional Memory :
Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
------------- --------------------- -------------
MSDOS 12768 ( 12.5K) 31E0
KBD 3296 ( 3.2K) CE0
HIMEM 1248 ( 1.2K) 4E0
MOUSE 12528 ( 12.2K) 30F0
COMMAND 4432 ( 4.3K) 1150
MSCDEXNT 464 ( 0.5K) 1D0
REDIR 2672 ( 2.6K) A70
DOSX 34848 ( 34.0K) 8820
FREE 112 ( 0.1K) 70
FREE 1616 ( 1.6K) 650
FREE 581104 (567.5K) 8DDF0
Total FREE : 582832 (569.2K)
Upper Memory :
Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
------------- --------------------- -------------
SYSTEM 184304 (180.0K) 2CFF0
FREE 77808 ( 76.0K) 12FF0
Total FREE : 77808 ( 76.0K)
Total bytes available to programs (Conventional+Upper) : 660640 (645.2K)
Largest executable program size : 579440 (565.9K)
Largest available upper memory block : 77808 ( 76.0K)
1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area
Here's what mem/p looks like:
Address Name Size Type
------- -------- ------ ------
000000 000400 Interrupt Vector
000400 000100 ROM Communication Area
000500 000200 DOS Communication Area
000700 IO 000370 System Data
000A70 MSDOS 001630 System Data
0020A0 IO 005450 System Data
KBD 000CE0 System Program
HIMEM 0004E0 DEVICE=
MOUSE 0030F0 System Program
000720 FILES=
000090 FCBS=
0001B0 LASTDRIVE=
0007D0 STACKS=
007500 COMMAND 000A20 Program
007F30 MSDOS 000070 -- Free --
007FB0 COMMAND 000730 Environment
0086F0 MSDOS 000650 -- Free --
008D50 MSCDEXNT 0001D0 Program
008F30 REDIR 000A70 Program
0099B0 DOSX 0087A0 Program
012160 DOSX 000080 Data
0121F0 MEM 000670 Environment
012870 MEM 0174E0 Program
029D60 MSDOS 076280 -- Free --
09FFF0 SYSTEM 02D000 System Program
0CD000 MSDOS 012FF0 -- Free --
655360 bytes total conventional memory
655360 bytes available to MS-DOS
579440 largest executable program size
1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area
Another question: How do I increase available contiguous memory? I tried to play "Titanic" but it kept complaining of insufficient contiguous memory.
I tried putting ems=ram in the config.nt file, turning off USB in bios did nothing either. I would be so appreciative if someone could tell me how to look or find a conflict using a diagnostic program like msd. Thanks in advance!
