Did some more testing trying to maximize conventional memory availability.

Unfortunately I'm still running into stability issues using DOSMAX. I'll get random lock-ups when performing basic DOS functions (e.g. DIR, MEM). It's not as frequent as when I was using the PK-X486S50-3. But it's also not consistent so I'm still struggling to determine what the cause is. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.

I also tried using SHELLMAX which seems to work and frees up more conventional RAM. So far the most I've been able to get in a stable configuration is 580k (594,016 bytes).

Here is my current CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT listings.

CONFIG.SYS

1[MENU]
2MENUITEM=UMB,DOS with UMB (no EMS)
3MENUITEM=EMS,DOS 2MB EMS
4MENUITEM=NOEMS,DOS no EMS
5MENUITEM=CLEAN,DOS no drivers
6MENUDEFAULT=NOEMS,10
7
8[COMMON]
9REM ** nothing here **
10
11[UMB]
12FILES=30
13BUFFERS=20
14DOS=UMB
15DEVICE=C:\EMS2UMB\EMS2UMB.EXE
16DEVICE=C:\VGAFUDGE\VGAFUDGE.EXE
17DEVICE=C:\USE!UMBS\USE!UMBS.SYS D000-DFFF
18DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
19REM DEVICE=C:\DOSMAX\DOSMAX.EXE /P:-
20SHELL=C:\DOSMAX\SHELLMAX.COM COMMAND.COM /P
21
22[EMS]
23FILES=30
24BUFFERS=20
25DEVICE=C:\VGAFUDGE\VGAFUDGE.EXE
26DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
27DEVICE=C:\LTEMM\LTEMM.EXE /p:D000 /i:260 /h:64 /d:5 /f:0
28
29[NOEMS]
30FILES=30
31BUFFERS=20
32DEVICE=C:\VGAFUDGE\VGAFUDGE.EXE
33DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
34
35[CLEAN]
36REM ** no drivers **

AUTOEXEC.BAT

1@ECHO OFF
2PROMPT $p$g
3PATH C:\DOS;C:\VSWITCH
4SET TEMP=C:\DOS
5
6GOTO %CONFIG%
7
8:UMB
9LH C:\VSWITCH\VSRES.COM
10LH C:\TLJOYFIX\TLJOYFIX.COM
11LH C:\CTMOUSE\CTMOUSE.EXE
12GOTO EXIT
13
14:EMS
15C:\VSWITCH\VSRES.COM
16C:\TLJOYFIX\TLJOYFIX.COM
17C:\CTMOUSE\CTMOUSE.EXE
18GOTO EXIT
19
20:NOEMS
21C:\VSWITCH\VSRES.COM
22C:\TLJOYFIX\TLJOYFIX.COM
23C:\CTMOUSE\CTMOUSE.EXE
24GOTO EXIT
25
26:CLEAN
27REM **no drivers**
28GOTO EXIT
29
30:EXIT
31
32

😳 Whoa all this on that machine!

Love this thread! Nice work and a nice machine you have there! Thanks for sharing!

Best wishes,

Tony.

Hi. Thanks for sharing. I've been considering buying one tandy 1000tl but what bothers me is that even on the slow mode the 286 might be too fast for old games designed for the 8088 at 4.77 MHz like digger, tapper, frogger...
Have you tested them? Or checked with sysinfo or similar how does it compare to a real IBM pc? Thanks

marcushg85 wrote on 2024-10-07, 20:27:

Hi. Thanks for sharing. I've been considering buying one tandy 1000tl but what bothers me is that even on the slow mode the 286 might be too fast for old games designed for the 8088 at 4.77 MHz like digger, tapper, frogger...
Have you tested them? Or checked with sysinfo or similar how does it compare to a real IBM pc? Thanks

I'm afraid I haven't tested any games designed for 4.77MHz, and don't currently have an XT system to compare with.

One I project I intend to try at some point is to combine a Tandy 1000 SX with a 286 Accelerator board. From what I've researched, that should allow for several speed options including 4.77MHz, Turbo-XT (~7 MHz), and 286 (8MHz).