Simoyd wrote:

Its not fine :( I cant find any of those files in my windows system32 drivers folder, should I download them? how whould i get t […]
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Its not fine 🙁 I cant find any of those files in my windows system32 drivers folder, should I download them? how whould i get this to work?

note also that im not using a qwerty keyboard, it's dvorak, but i can type qwerty so I dont care if it thinks it qwerty.

sure, you can upload A test, ill do stuff thats fine.

I already tried booting up, starting command.com right away and waiting till everything loads and then starting system shock, and it did NOT work as i thought it would, I actually need to start the game for it to work. Does this invalidate your test or do you still want me to try it?

You misunderstood about the DIRECTIO.SYS, GIVEIO.SYS, OSAIO.SYS files that I mentioned that might be found in \Windows\System32\drivers. They are EEEEEVIL! If you find any - Purge them, Strike them Mightily - Banish them to the Nether Regions of Hell... 😳 <ahem> They are a lazy programmers way of functioning in a protected-mode operating system like WinXP. They have side-effects (usually bad) for other applications.

Now about your USB Dvorak keyboard. It's the scancodes which count for SYSTEM SHOCK, not the ASCII letter attached to the key that is important for movement and control in the SYSTEM SHOCK code. I am curious about your keyboard experiences with SYSTEM SHOCK running on WinXP. When you do your "quick-before-its-too-late" startup of SYSTEM SHOCK with your mouse (USB?) and keyboard (USB) do both the mouse and keyboard function correctly with SYSTEM SHOCK running at normal speed? If you WAIT to startup SYSTEM SHOCK so that it runs quite slowly, what happens to your mouse and keyboard? Does the mouse function properly and the keyboard fail to respond at all in the menu or in-game? Very important to know this...

You pretty much answered my test questions when you outlined that if you just started an NTVDM session/window right away, but did NOT startup SYSTEM SHOCK very quickly at the same time - that the delay proves fatal in that SYSTEM SHOCK will then respond slowly when it is started in that same NTVDM window because of whatever is happening with the startup programs. It has to be a device driver that is dynamically loaded by an application...

OK, now for the simple test that I would like for you to conduct. I have attached a file to this message called SLOWDOS.ZIP - this file contains the file SLOWDOS.COM (version 1.01) which is a simple DOS TSR written by Mr. Jeff Leyda which plays with the RTC and 8259 PICs on a real DOS system to attempt to control apparent 'speed'.

What I would like for you to attempt to so run this program as an NTVDM 'Dos" prompt with the Command-line of: SLOWDOS /d95 . Please try it in two cases.

First case, do the re-boot and startup the "quick" working NTVDM window in which you are able to successfully run SYSTEM SHOCK, but don't run the SYSTEM SHOCK file CDSHOCK.EXE, instead run SLOWDOS /d95 in its place, just as quickly. What should happen? Nothing, it should have no effect in an NTVDM sandbox. Run some DIRs etc, the speed in the NTVDM should remain the same.

Second case. Wait for all the startup programs to finish so that you now can start an NTVDM window which will FAIL to properly run SYSTEM SHOCK. Don't run CDSHOCK.EXE, instead run the SLOWDOS /d95 command and tell me what happens. Just so you know, technically the NTVDM sandbox should prevent this 'bare-metal' code from doing anything, but if it does BE PREPARED that you MIGHT have your entire WinXP operating system brought to a standstill if any device drivers have given SLOWDOS.COM free reign. I was suprised when it happened to my WinXP (SP2) workstation one time - the system and GUI responded like molasses in the arctic... Had to re-boot to recover functionality. Nothing wrong, but make sure that you don't have anything important open when you perform this test.

Thanks for your time,

dvwjr

about the keyboard and mouse: the mouse has always worked and the keyboard has never worked. The only way I have been able to ener the game is to find an old ps2 keyboard and hook that up so I can type my name and click start. the usb keyboard has never worked... 🙁

on a further note, my ps2 keyboard doesnt actually reach my seat, I have a USB hub on an extension coord going across the room (don't ask why, it makes sense when you see my room layout) so I dont have a ps2 keyboard that will reach (without buying an extension coord)

regarding that test: I dont have time right now to do it. I'll prolly do it monday evening (eastern standard time)

Simoyd wrote:

regarding that test: I dont have time right now to do it. I'll prolly do it monday evening (eastern standard time)

No problem on the test. Whenever you have the time is AOK.

Your description of your USB keyboard woes seems to add to the evidence that a device driver is allowing the NTVDM (and DOS programs executing) to access the real PC hardware while running under WinXP and the NTVDM sub-system. The reason that a keyboard with a PS/2 port works when your USB keyboard does not is that the PS/2 keyboard can respond to SYSTEM SHOCK when it reads the REAL IO port 60h for the scancodes, where as your USB keyboard does NOTHING with IO port 60h, it depends on WinXP to translate the USB keyboard scancodes and provide them to any programs executing in the NTVDM via its emulation of IO port 60h and 64h.

In other words, your WinXP (SP2) operating system is BROKEN, probably by some device driver used by some lazy-assed programmer who never learned the value of doing it right the first time... I've seen this on my Intel branded D925XECV2 motherboad with its included Desktop Utilities version v2.1.9.66 (full or hardware monitor only) when I found that OSAIO.SYS was the culprit - put there with the Intel Monitoring software. Very disappointing coming from Intel - but they farmed it out. The same problem does not come from the Intel Desktop Control Center v1.3.0063 I found to my relief.

The SLOWDOS /d95 test in the faulty NTVDM should bring your system to an effective halt, so let me know...

I'll check back next week,

dvwjr