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No EMS with BARIS

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First post, by ctopfer

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Hi,

let me first say that I appreciate

a) the VDMS program, because it let me run most of my dos games nicely
b) the fact that this is one of the few message boards where you can post WITHOUT having to register

I have following problem:

I installed VMDS 2.04, updated it as requested and installed the Launchpad.

I tried to run "Buzz Aldrin´s Race into space", a DOS game with little in-flight videos (of the space race) running from CD.

The installation did not work because my DVD-ROM is drive F: and the BARIS-Install looked for my harddrive on E: (where my Compact Flash Card Reader is) instead on C:
So I used DOS Box to install and emulated drive F: as drive D: and the program installed nicely to default directory c:\baris

When running with DoS Box however the videos are screwed up and the CD music (which is FANTASTIC!) doesn´t play.

So back to VMDS.

I tried to configure the .EXE (not the .BAT) with Launchpad, leaving the default settings and just adding the low level CD ROM support.

It had EMS enabled with 4096 kb reserved.

Yet when trying to start via the .pif file created by launchpad, I get the error message:

"You cannot execute BARIS because you do not have any EMS. Make sure there is at least 2.6 MB of EMS memory available".

Sad.

Any help GREATLY appreciated.

My System:
Athlon XP 2000+
256 MB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 460
NVIDIA On Board Soundcard
Drives:
E:+D: CompactFlash and some other card reader
F: DVD ROM (boot drive)
G: CD RW

Reply 1 of 4, by MajorGrubert

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ctopfer wrote:

It had EMS enabled with 4096 kb reserved.

Yet when trying to start via the .pif file created by launchpad, I get the error message:

"You cannot execute BARIS because you do not have any EMS. Make sure there is at least 2.6 MB of EMS memory available".

This kind of problem is becoming quite popular. It's due to the fact that many motherboards do not have enough upper memory space (the memory area between 640k and 1MB) for the NTVDM to reserve 64kB for an EMS frame. In this case, even if you enable EMS in your shortcut, Windows is not able to provide it for the VDM.

There are some workarounds in this case, but first of all we need to be sure about your memory configuration. There is a simple test you can do (thanks to an original idea posted in this forum by Nicht Sehr Gut, one of the moderators): create a batch file named GO.BAT with a single command:

MEM /C >VDMSMEM.TXT

Now, run this batch file with a VDMS shortcut. It will create a file named VDMSMEM.TXT similar to this:

Conventional Memory :

Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
------------- --------------------- -------------
MSDOS 11968 ( 11.7K) 2EC0
KBD 3280 ( 3.2K) CD0
HIMEM 1248 ( 1.2K) 4E0
COMMAND 4112 ( 4.0K) 1010
DOSX 34720 ( 33.9K) 87A0
FREE 112 ( 0.1K) 70
FREE 599728 (585.7K) 926B0

Total FREE : 599840 (585.8K)

Upper Memory :

Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
------------- --------------------- -------------
SYSTEM 196592 (192.0K) 2FFF0
DOSX 128 ( 0.1K) 80
MOUSE 12528 ( 12.2K) 30F0
MSCDEXNT 464 ( 0.5K) 1D0
REDIR 2672 ( 2.6K) A70
FREE 1296 ( 1.3K) 510
FREE 48336 ( 47.2K) BCD0

Total FREE : 49632 ( 48.5K)

Total bytes available to programs (Conventional+Upper) : 49472 (634.3K)
Largest executable program size : 598432 (584.4K)
Largest available upper memory block : 48336 ( 47.2K)

1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

Post the contents of the file here so we can be sure about your memory setup and suggest some alternatives.

Regards,

Major Grubert

Athlon 64 3200+/Asus K8V-X/1GB DDR400/GeForce FX 5700/SB Live! 5.1

Reply 2 of 4, by ctopfer

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I did what you suggested, I am German btw so this is in German, but I guess you guys should be able to figure. If not, I will translate it.
Thank you for replying so quickly!

Konventioneller Speicher:

Name Größe (dezimal) Größe (hex)
------------- --------------------- -------------
MSDOS 11616 ( 11.3K) 2D60
KBD 3296 ( 3.2K) CE0
HIMEM 1248 ( 1.2K) 4E0
COMMAND 4224 ( 4.1K) 1080
DOSX 34720 ( 33.9K) 87A0
KB16 6096 ( 6.0K) 17D0
Frei 112 ( 0.1K) 70
Frei 672 ( 0.7K) 2A0
Frei 593120 (579.2K) 90CE0

Insgesamt frei: 593904 (580.0K)

Hoher Speicher:

Name Größe (dezimal) Größe (hex)
------------- --------------------- -------------
SYSTEM 208880 (204.0K) 32FF0
MSCDEXNT 464 ( 0.5K) 1D0
MOUSE 12528 ( 12.2K) 30F0
Frei 864 ( 0.8K) 360
Frei 2704 ( 2.6K) A90
Frei 36576 ( 35.7K) 8EE0

Insgesamt frei: 40144 ( 39.2K)

Insgesamt frei (konventioneller und hoher Speicher): 634048 (619.2K)
Maximale Größe für ausführbares Programm: 592240 (578.4K)
Größter freier Block im hohen Speicherblock: 36576 ( 35.7K)

8388608 Bytes gesamter fortlaufender Erweiterungsspeicher
0 Bytes fortlaufender Erweiterungsspeicher verfgbar
4045824 Bytes XMS-Speicher verfgbar
MS-DOS ist resident im oberen Speicherbereich (HMA).

Reply 3 of 4, by MajorGrubert

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Taking a look at your file I have the impression that you have only a small upper memory region available. It seems to be smaller than 64kB (adding the size of the programs that are loaded in UMBs to the free space there). In order to have an EMS frame you will need to change some settings in your motherboard, probably disabling some built-in devices you don't need.

You will have to boot your machine and enter the setup program in your BIOS. A very common feature that "steals" UMB areas is BIOS support for USB keyboards. If you do not have on of these, chances are you can problably disable its support in the BIOS. This setting is usually called "USB keyboard support" or "USB legacy device support".

Another possbility it that your motherboard have built-in RAID support, and it will use some memory space so you can boot from RAID. If you are not using this capability you can also disable it and this will problably regain some memory to allow for EMS support in the NTVDM.

Finally, if you are not sure about this kind of detail, please tell us your motherboard model or your computer brand and model, so we can try to find something you can safely change.

ctopfer wrote:

I am German btw so this is in German

I'll leave this subject to Nicht. I've already stolen his troubleshooting ideas 😉

Regards,

Major Grubert

Athlon 64 3200+/Asus K8V-X/1GB DDR400/GeForce FX 5700/SB Live! 5.1

Reply 4 of 4, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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Originally posted by ctopfer I am German btw so this is in German, but I guess you guys should be able to figure.


Conventional memory:

Name size of (decimal) size (hex)
------------- --------------------- -------------
MSDOS 11616 ( 11.3K) 2D60
KBD 3296 ( 3.2K) CE0
HIMEM 1248 ( 1.2K) 4E0
COMMAND 4224 ( 4.1K) 1080
DOSX 34720 ( 33.9K) 87A0
KB16 6096 ( 6.0K) 17D0
Free 112 ( 0.1K) 70
Free 672 ( 0.7K) 2A0
Free 593120 (579.2K) 90CE0

Total free: 593904 (580.0K)

high memory:

Name size of (decimal) size (hex))
------------- --------------------- -------------
SYSTEM 208880 (204.0K) 32FF0
MSCDEXNT 464 ( 0.5K) 1D0
MOUSE 12528 ( 12.2K) 30F0
Free 864 ( 0.8K) 360
Free 2704 ( 2.6K) A90
Free 36576 ( 35.7K) 8EE0

Total Free: 40144 ( 39.2K)

(conventional and high memory): 634048 (619.2K)
Maximum size for executable program: 592240 (578.4K)
Largest Free block in the high memory area: 36576 (35.7K)

8388608 Bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 Bytes available contiguous extended memory
4045824 Bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS is resident in High Memory Area (HMA).

MajorGrubert already covered devices in the BIOS issue. If BARIS doesn't need DPMI (and if you're using the public version of DosBox, it doesn't), then you should disable DPMI support (DOSX). Hopefully that might free up some memory, but it looks like even then you will be short of the 64k you need for EMS.

What strange irony that as technology progresses, tasks that were once common and easy are now near-impossible.