candle_86 wrote on 2020-06-06, 15:29:

So im wondering since i have easy access to EMS cards but not physical ram chips would Windows see the ram on the EMS card and use it, say my 386 has 2mb of ram, and the EMS board lets say has 8mb, would windows now see 10mb of ram? I'm looking at the EMS boards with 30pin SIMMS

As far as I know, Windows 3.1 itself only uses XMS . https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/084/Q84388/

Can your card be re-configured to provide extended memory ?

win 3.1 can use EMS, but only in real mode - not standard or enhanced

dunno ill see

Windows 3.1 does not support real mode. Windows 3.0 does.

I have never actually used EMS under 3.0, but my understanding is that for the best experience you're going to want a LIM4.0 compatible card...and it should be set up for "large page frame" mode, which means backfilling conventional memory down to 256kb. I don't even know if that is possible in 386 and 486 systems.

Even then, I think windows 3.0 will only really benefit from that memory if the software was specifically written to take advantage of it. There are a few programs that do, but not many that you would probably care about.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-06-06, 16:03:

win 3.1 can use EMS, but only in real mode - not standard or enhanced

No real-mode in Win3.1 and afair, no version of Windows can use XMS or EMS in real-mode. They can only use additional 64 kb of HMA if present. Everthing else requires standard-mode (and hence a 286, too).

I'm speaking under correction, but I think that Windows 3.0 handles memory
for Windows programs in all three modes (Real, Standard, 386)..
Windows 2.x was different, though, I recall - It had an EMS manager only (simply said),
so both DOS and Win16 programs had to support EMS in some way or another.
(By the way, OS/2 2.0 also claimed to have superior Windows /386 and 3.0 compatibility
over real Windows, since it did handle the whole memory managment for its own special build of Windows 3.0.)

Anyway, I was able to run lots* of Windows programs in Windows 3.0 Real-Mode,
including those that were meant for Windows 1.x/2.x.
My AST Rampage 286 (EEMS/LIM4), the chipset EMS of a 286 and EMM386 were able to provide
the type of EMS needed by Win3 RM. So I assume, normal EMS page frame (64KiB)
*might* do as well, albeit with impaired performance.
That being said, I tried this with 286-586 systems only. No XTs or Lo-Tech cards yet.
EMM386+MemMaker also made my copy of Windows 2.03 see EMS (in about dialog).

More information (a little bit; some videos of mine):
Re: Windows 3.1 on a 386 with 640K RAM - Possible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqFSWnMpVic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzCvFL30KKA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSQCKlhmEq8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFQD0eNg2w

(* Of the ones that run in Real-Mode. Many later programs need Standard-Mode, at least.
Turbo Pascal for Windows could compile 8086/Real-Mode programs, but not Delphi and Visual Basic.)

I think I remember reading that EMS might be available to DOS boxes in 386-enhanced mode but not Windows programs?

yeah I forgot they nixed real mode with 3.1 my fault, definitely works in 3.0 though