DOS Box closes automatically \ VOGONS

DOS Box closes automatically

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First post, by MrHappy

Posted on 2014-04-02, 17:35

MrHappy Offline

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Joined: 2007-04-27, 21:28
Location: Birmingham AL

I have a old steel measurement cutting program that used to run on DOS and would run in a 32-bit Windows XP DOS window. I now have a Windows 7 x64 machine that gives the error "This version of (program name) is not compatible with the version of Windows you are using. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need a x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher."

I downloaded DOS Box 0.74 and have successfully installed it and mounted the folder C:\DOS as my C: drive. I have copied the DOS program to the C:\DOS folder.

Now when I type DCOM, the program is DCOM.COM, DOS Box closes within a second with no error output. I am hoping that x64 is not the problem. I was hoping DOS Box would be the work around on this.

I need help with where to start in troubleshooting this.

Many thanks.

There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and those who dont.

Reply 1 of 4, by Jorpho

Posted on 2014-04-02, 18:35

Jorpho Offline

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DOSBox is intended principally for games and attempting to run a non-gaming application is generally very ill-advised. You may want to consider using XP Mode (if you are running Windows Ultimate) or simply the 32-bit verison of Windows 7.

If you wish to proceed, two relatively easy troubleshooting steps are to try the SVN Daum verison of DOSBox, and/or booting some version of MS-DOS in DOSBox.

I think DOSBox should also create stderr.txt and stdout.txt when it crashes, though offhand I'm not sure where exactly those files would be created; you also might need to start it with the -noconsole parameter for that to work.

Reply 2 of 4, by MrHappy

Posted on 2014-04-08, 15:29

MrHappy Offline

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Joined: 2007-04-27, 21:28
Location: Birmingham AL

Thank you for the help and sorry for the delayed response.

I tried the -nonconsole like you advised and that didn't work for me. I looked for the stderr.txt and stdout.txt files but I was short on time so I left it at that.

I have looked into a couple other options as well. Since it works best in an old Win 98 machine they have in their office I plan on setting up Virtual-PC and creating a virtual Win 98 machine. If that doesn't work I will try XP Mode, but I doubt it will work with it being 64 bit.

Thanks again for the help.

There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and those who dont.

Reply 3 of 4, by Jorpho

Posted on 2014-04-08, 16:03

Jorpho Offline

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MrHappy wrote:
I tried the -nonconsole like you advised and that didn't work for me.

That might be because it is -noconsole and not -nonconsole. Details should be in the readme.

MrHappy wrote:
If that doesn't work I will try XP Mode, but I doubt it will work with it being 64 bit.

XP Mode is not 64-bit; it is basically 32-bit Windows XP running in Virtual PC.

Reply 4 of 4, by MrHappy

Posted on 2014-04-08, 16:49

MrHappy Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: 2007-04-27, 21:28
Location: Birmingham AL

Jorpho wrote:
That might be because it is -noconsole and not -nonconsole. Details should be in the readme.

My bad, typo. When I waqs on site I believe I was copy pasting, so it should have been correct when I was trying it.

XP Mode is not 64-bit; it is basically 32-bit Windows XP running in Virtual PC.

Good to know. Thanks. 😀

There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and those who dont.

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