Tried all versions, all parameters. /X2MAX32 /MAX=32767 and /MAX=65535 and /MAX=64535

HimemSX 3.52: same ill behavior
HimemX 3.34: same ill behavior
HimemX 3.34: same ill behavior
HimemX2 3.34: same ill behavior

Found a partial solution: in BIOS if I enable this strange option, everything starts to work. Installation of Death Rally no longer complains and I was able to finish whole process and even run the game.

I talk about this option: OS/2 Onboard memory > 64M: Enabled

Then it works no matter what HimemX version you use.

I don't know why is that and it is partial solution because not all motherboards have this BIOS feature. After enabling this total xms still shows 1GB, free xms shows 64MB. But the apps starts working.

Also I want to point out that newer HimemX version will not accept /MAX=64M. This will result in 64K. You must supply the value in K, for example 65535.

I'm reporting this on HimemX Github Issues, lets see what happens next.

I wonder why Mr Loews solution never was mentioned in this multi year thread

rmay635703 wrote on 2021-08-26, 22:55:

I wonder why Mr Loews solution never was mentioned in this multi year thread

That solution is the most interesting as it doesn't even require a XMS memory manager to be loaded.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-08-26, 23:21:

rmay635703 wrote on 2021-08-26, 22:55:

I wonder why Mr Loews solution never was mentioned in this multi year thread

That solution is the most interesting as it doesn't even require a XMS memory manager to be loaded.

What solution? This LIMITMEM? Going to give it a try 😀

http://lonecrusader.x10host.com/rloew/limitmem.html

cyberluke wrote on 2021-08-28, 10:37:

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-08-26, 23:21:

rmay635703 wrote on 2021-08-26, 22:55:

I wonder why Mr Loews solution never was mentioned in this multi year thread

That solution is the most interesting as it doesn't even require a XMS memory manager to be loaded.

What solution? This LIMITMEM? Going to give it a try 😀

http://lonecrusader.x10host.com/rloew/limitmem.html

Yes. 😉

He also wrote a RAMDISK software that doesn't use a XMS memory manager.

Yes, R. Loew's LIMITMEM.SYS works as expected. Much better than all these HimemX / HimemX2 and HimemSX and JemmEX versions. Hm, I will report this bug on HimemX Github and hopefully with this evidence I will be taken more seriously there.

Can You upload LIMITMEM.SYS here? http page doesn't work.

lukas12p wrote on 2021-09-30, 15:47:

Can You upload LIMITMEM.SYS here? http page doesn't work.

Strange, that web site worked at the time of the post.

Same website from archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20200901223822/ht … w/limitmem.html. The download link works, but the "more information" link doesn't.

Edit: The website it's now online once again.

I'm having a similar problem with the DOS RAR file compressor reporting "out of memory" due to having 1GB if memory installed. If I use LIMITMEM.SYS, I can get it working again.

The problem I'm having is that, while it works fine in MS-DOS 7.1, it doesn't work at all with FreeDOS 1.3. MEM reports all 1GB of memory and RAR throws an error.

I use BURNMEM.SYS (Win9x Memory Burn Driver) which has been working great for all situations. I got it from the big download package in this thread:

X58/i865/V880 - Yamaha7x4/AurealV1/2 pure Dos7.1- compatibility list/research/ultim. drivers configs, WIP- gurus needed

Anything other than LIMITMEM.SYS only limits the available memory, not the amount of memory returned by the BIOS. Programs which query this information wrap around to a negative number.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-11-21, 11:55:

I'm having a similar problem with the DOS RAR file compressor reporting "out of memory" due to having 1GB if memory installed. If I use LIMITMEM.SYS, I can get it working again.

The problem I'm having is that, while it works fine in MS-DOS 7.1, it doesn't work at all with FreeDOS 1.3. MEM reports all 1GB of memory and RAR throws an error.

I suspect FreeDOS kernel handles things a bit differently. I tried LIMITMEM myself on FreeDOS before only to find out it's not really working.

Actually I was trying to install Win3.x using a kernel built from source with the experimental "-DWIN31SUPPORT" flag set, and neither HIMEMX/HIMEMSX nor LIMITMEM worked to fool Windows about the system's available RAM.

The only way that worked for me with FreeDOS kernel is to use Win3.x's HIMEM.SYS, which itself is based on an earlier XMS standard thus effectively limiting available RAM to 64MB. Using that HIMEM.SYS at least allowed me to proceed to the GUI install phase, but I still can't really run Win3.x post-install as there may be other issues.

While I haven't tried, it's possible that QEMM386 will also work as a RAM limiter, as its built-in XMS driver can only handle up to 256MB.

wbahnassi wrote on 2022-11-21, 12:47:

I use BURNMEM.SYS (Win9x Memory Burn Driver) which has been working great for all situations. I got it from the big download package in this thread:

X58/i865/V880 - Yamaha7x4/AurealV1/2 pure Dos7.1- compatibility list/research/ultim. drivers configs, WIP- gurus needed

Same here, when you are using the default himem this is a fantastic driver to use. Very stable and never ran into a memory related issue as long as I set the memory low enough for the specific application.

I had to use LIMITMEM.SYS or try different HIMEMX versions (there are some different behavior across versions). Also needed to enable Memory Loop Hole in BIOS in some situations (together with LIMITMEM.SYS).

Hi. Himem.sys of DOS 6.x has a switch to reserve RAM for BIOS interrupt 15 hex. It's /INT15=.

The switch is normally used to reserve Extended Memory for older DOS programs which didn't support XMS specification,
but used the service routine of the AT BIOS instead, to access RAM beyond 1 MB.

In theory, this circumstance can also be used to simply lower the amount of available XMS memory.

Jo22 wrote on 2022-12-04, 13:33:

Himem.sys of DOS 6.x has a switch to reserve RAM for BIOS interrupt 15 hex. It's /INT15=.

It is also included with later versions that comes with Windows 9x and it isn't really useful when it comes to limiting the amount of available XMS memory. The maximum value allowed is 65535 in KB and using higher values may cause glitches.

7

Gmlb256 wrote on 2022-12-04, 15:55:

Jo22 wrote on 2022-12-04, 13:33:

Himem.sys of DOS 6.x has a switch to reserve RAM for BIOS interrupt 15 hex. It's /INT15=.

It is also included with later versions that comes with Windows 9x and it isn't really useful when it comes to limiting the amount of available XMS memory. The maximum value allowed is 65535 in KB and using higher values may cause glitches.

Older Himem.sys versions from before DOS 7.x had a 16MB or 64MB limit, I vaguely remember.

How about using a dual-boot configuration with, say, MS-DOS 5 or 6.x?

That way, it's not needed to take care of Windows 98 compatiblity when choosing an alternate XMS driver.

Edit: Just double-checked. XMS 2 specification had a 64 MB limit.

In MS-DOS 5 Himem.sys, I believe, there was sort of a detection issue.
Or memory beyond 16 MB were merely supported for PS/2 or EISA PCs.
It had been so long..

The Himem.sys part of MS-DOS 6.2x should see 64 MB on AT compatibles, however. 🙂👍

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_memory

Jo22 wrote on 2022-12-04, 18:47:

Older Himem.sys versions from before DOS 7.x had a 16MB or 64MB limit, I vaguely remember.

Yep, I didn't forgot about that. 😉

Depending on the situation they can be used on newer versions of DOS. Very useful quick and dirty solution, but certain older versions consumed more conventional memory IIRC.

Old Himem.sys does not matter. You will need NUMHANDLES parameter and even that does not work sometimes. The best approach is to try the latest HimemX from Github or R.Loew LIMITMEM.SYS utility together with enabling Memory Hole option in BIOS.

Then using some boot manager like System Commander 9, you can boot to Windows 98 with 256MB Ram while having an option of 64MB with DOS option and it does not matter what DOS version, really.

You have to do like this because various programs & apps use different type of reading the value for your actual RAM size and then you get overflow. That is why simply using old DOS or old Himem.sys won't work!

(tested on Super Socket 7 board with AMD K6-II+ CPU as well as Dual Pentium III Slot 1 board with 512 MB Ram) - the most tricky game is probably Death Rally

Okay, but why so militant? 🤷‍♂️
XMS has a function to report the amount of total memory.
Hm. It's function 08h, I guess?

"This function returns the size of the largest available extended memory block in the system."

Source: http://www.phatcode.net/res/219/files/xms20.txt

Now, is the largest block an XMS block (Himem.sys) or an Extended Memory block (> 1MB) ?

If it was XMS, then the reported value -dictated by the rules of logic- would be within the borders of XMS 2.0, which I think is 64MB.

The description in English language is all lower case here, which makes it not very clear, sadly. 🙁

German language which I'm used to is more precise here, due the use of upper case letters for nouns.*
An 'erweiterter Speicher' (an extended memory) is not necessarily the same as an 'Erweitungsspeicher' (the extended memory, as in The Extended Memory™).

(*Edit: 'Capitalized' calls that the English language. Ah, okay..)