eddman wrote on 2024-09-21, 15:24:

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

Just type MSD and then select "Memory..."; it'd show you the memory ranges map/table. Post a screenshot of the map here if you're not sure which ranges are safe.

Ok this is what I see:

So little umb blocks, in my opinion is due to the wrong configuration of emm386, I have 154kb of umb. Also largest free block is 6kb no wonder why nothing fits in it (maybe doskey?).
I would have loaded the system with f5 and used umb info to get a more clear result without any driver loaded.

Nemo1985 wrote on 2024-09-21, 16:39:

So little umb blocks, in my opinion is due to the wrong configuration of emm386, I have 154kb of umb. Also largest free block is 6kb no wonder why nothing fits in it (maybe doskey?).
I would have loaded the system with f5 and used umb info to get a more clear result without any driver loaded.

The attachment Immagine.png is no longer available

I can do that.

Tempest wrote on 2024-09-21, 16:44:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2024-09-21, 16:39:

So little umb blocks, in my opinion is due to the wrong configuration of emm386, I have 154kb of umb. Also largest free block is 6kb no wonder why nothing fits in it (maybe doskey?).
I would have loaded the system with f5 and used umb info to get a more clear result without any driver loaded.

The attachment Immagine.png is no longer available

I can do that.

You can download umbinfo from there: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=955&start=30

Nemo1985 wrote on 2024-09-21, 16:47:

You can download umbinfo from there: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=955&start=30

Ok here's what I'm getting:

Nemo1985, please allow me to respond before suggesting other stuff; it'd just make it confusing.

Tempest, I also wanted to see the map without emm386 as I posted earlier, but can go based on those MSD images too. The problem is that the video bios takes too much space. The E000-E7FF range is also not used by emm386 but MIGHT be safe to use.

Try this: DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM I=B000-B7FF I=CC80-EFFF Frame=E000

If it freezes or crashes then it's probably E000-E7FF. If so, there isn't much that can be done about it using emm386.

EDIT:

Try disabling shadow rams in the bios to see if the dots in that range go away.

eddman wrote on 2024-09-21, 17:03:

Nemo1985, please allow me to respond before suggesting other stuff; it'd just make it confusing. […]
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Nemo1985, please allow me to respond before suggesting other stuff; it'd just make it confusing.

Tempest, I also wanted to see the map without emm386 as I posted earlier, but can go based on those MSD images too. The problem is that the video bios takes too much space. The E000-E7FF range is also not used by emm386 but MIGHT be safe to use.

Try this: DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM I=B000-B7FF I=CD00-EFFF Frame=E000

If it freezes or crashes then it's probably E000-E7FF. If so, there isn't much that can be done about it using emm386.

EDIT:

Try disabling shadow rams in the bios to see if the dots in that range go away.

Could the video bios being too large be because the system has on board video (S3 I think)?

I can't tell; maybe the GF2 bios itself is that large. Have you disabled the on-board video, or is it enabled and the board simply automatically picks the GF2 at boot?

First see if the E000-E7FF range works or not. This is unrelated to the video.

eddman wrote on 2024-09-21, 18:53:

I can't tell; maybe the GF2 bios itself is that large. Have you disabled the on-board video, or is it enabled and the board simply automatically picks the GF2 at boot?

First see if the E000-E7FF range works or not. This is unrelated to the video.

It didn't freeze but I'm still at 615K

The BIOS appears to pick the video card over the on-board video as it's showing NVIDIA.

I don't see RAM shadowing in the BIOS but I see ROM shadowing.

Tempest wrote on 2024-09-21, 20:10:

It didn't freeze but I'm still at 615K

If it doesn't freeze, etc. then don't mess with the shadow rams. It doesn't matter what the free base mem says right now. How much is the free upper memory? Is everything loaded high? Run MSD and see what the map looks like.

The BIOS appears to pick the video card over the on-board video as it's showing NVIDIA.

Just disable the on-board.

I don't see RAM shadowing in the BIOS but I see ROM shadowing.

Shadow ram IS rom.

rom copied into the ram = shadow ram

https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/078/Q78528/

Anyway, I meant to check the shadow rams to get rid of the dots (E000-E7FF). Since it's not freezing with the config I posted there's no need to change the shadow rams.

That video rom resides in the C000-CC7F(?) range. You don't want to tinker with that.

eddman wrote on 2024-09-21, 20:40:

If it doesn't freeze, etc. then don't mess with the shadow rams. It doesn't matter what the free base mem says right now. How mu […]
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Tempest wrote on 2024-09-21, 20:10:

It didn't freeze but I'm still at 615K

If it doesn't freeze, etc. then don't mess with the shadow rams. It doesn't matter what the free base mem says right now. How much is the free upper memory? Is everything loaded high? Run MSD and see what the map looks like.

The BIOS appears to pick the video card over the on-board video as it's showing NVIDIA.

Just disable the on-board.

No sure if I can disable the on-board video. I don't see an option for that. The only thing I can do with video is enable/disable palette snoop.

DOSKEY still refuses to load high for some reason...

Did you use the emm386 parameters I wrote? In that screenshot it's clearly not applied.

eddman wrote on 2024-09-21, 21:13:

Did you use the emm386 parameters I wrote? In that screenshot it's clearly not applied.

Whoops I remed out the wrong line. Now I'm getting 618K free with largest upper memory block being 35K. DBLBUFF, EMM386, and HIMEM are the only things not loaded into upper memory.

I do get a weird warning now that says 'Option ROM or RAM Detected Within Page Frame'.

Your board has an on-board device that might be using that E000-E7FF range; maybe it's the S3, or ethernet, etc. I'm not that well versed in that area. Post the board's model, maybe someone can figure it out.

If you don't notice any problems while using the computer it's probably fine.

eddman wrote on 2024-09-21, 21:33:

Your board has an on-board device that might be using that E000-E7FF range; maybe it's the S3, or ethernet, etc. I'm not that well versed in that area. Post the board's model, maybe someone can figure it out.

If you don't notice any problems while using the computer it's probably fine.

It's an IBM Personal Computer 350. Model is 6587-LBV