Do you have a FULL Dos 6.22 install? (or, have the original win9x install CD?)

There exists a useful program for looking at the Adapter Rom Region, called MSD, (microsoft Diagnostics). I need to see what your adapter region looks like with no memory managers or drivers (OF ANY KIND) loaded.

The issue sounds to me, like you are using areas in the adapter region that should not be getting used (as they are not actually properly available for use) to create UMBs. A better understanding of what areas are actually free, and overtly stating Include and eXclude statements on the emm386 line in config.sys, may help resolve your problem if this is the case.

Basically-- what memmaker DOES:

It tells EMM386.EXE to scan the entire 384kb of Adapter Rom region, and check for option roms, using the "highscan" directive. This is KNOWN to cause problems, like you are having. It is found in the msdosdrv.txt file that accompanies win9x, and dos 6.22, when it discusses EMM386. THEN, based on what regions it has found that it thinks it can use, it uses advanced features of the LoadHigh (LH) directive to specify what "Region" of upper memory certain programs should be loaded in, and in what order, to maximize the effective free upper memory available after the system has booted.

To better understand this, consider for a moment, this kind of situation:

You have 640k of base system memory, A VGA option from at CC00-CFFF, 64k of unused adapter rom at D000-DFFF, a "Legacy USB" option rom that allows USB keyboards and mice to work with DOS, at E000-EFFF, and then the system rom at F000-FFFF. In addition to this, the VGA adapter memory window area between A000 and BFFF has had the monochrome mode video buffer area stolen for UMB with a manual include (B000-B7FF).

This gives you a memory map that looks like this:

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBWWWW########WWVVVVVVVVVVV###############LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLRRRRRRRRRRR

where BB is Base system RAM, WW is the VGA Window area, ## are allocated upper memory areas used for UMBs, VV is VGA video BIOS, LL is the "Legacy USB" Option Rom, and RR is the system ROM BIOS.

As you can see, there are TWO blocks (Regions) that are used for upper memory-- the block between B000-B7FF, and the block between D000-DFFF.

The LoadHigh command can be told which of these regions to attempt loading a driver/program into, using the /L:X syntax. This is important, because of the way DOS does memory allocations. Most programs DO NOT like to get split up, so they need a contiguous block of memory to be stored in. Some programs need more space than others, and some are more .. greedy.. than others, when it comes to how they behave, load-order wise, in terms of memory consumption.

Typically, if you are using the B000-B7FF monochrome adapter video buffer area for UMBs (only safe to do if you intend to NEVER, EVER, use monochrome 1bpp modes in your VGA card-- EG, you are NOT using infocomm's text adventures, and or, not using old 8088 vintage Hercules Monochrome based games!!), you will want smaller stuff, like CTMOUSE loaded in this region-- and anything that could fit neatly along side it-- in this region, and more space hungry stuff, like CDROM drivers and pals, in the second region at D000.

THE PROBLEM-- Is that MEMMAKER uses the HIGHSCAN directive-- which may incorrectly consider, say-- the Legacy USB option ROM to be "Free!!" for use as UMBs.

What do you suppose happens, when the BIOS supplied handler for USB keyboards and mice, gets overwritten by your CDRom driver? 😜
Others that might get clobbered, include disk controller BIOSes, etc.

This is why we need to see "What is actually there!!" and set up the upper memory area "Better informed"