Another test for Gona or anyone with a 3D Blaster VLB:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB2.20240525.001.7z
MD5: 340990126e81f408f9b95fa6a594a61c

Run VLB2 > vlb2.txt

It should produce a file like this but hopefully with useful results.

On my MS-DOS machine it produces "failure reading drive e. Abort?" prompt.

Unforunately I can't access https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/rbinter/ix/ at the moment.

to find out what Int 24h does.

http://web.archive.org/web/20250323021019/htt … doc/rbinter/ix/

robertmo3 wrote on 2025-05-25, 14:20:

http://web.archive.org/web/20250323021019/htt … doc/rbinter/ix/

Thanks robertmo3!

It looks like something has gone wrong before this int call.

sharangad wrote on 2025-05-25, 12:22:

Another test for Gona or anyone with a 3D Blaster VLB: […]
Show full quote

Another test for Gona or anyone with a 3D Blaster VLB:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB2.20240525.001.7z
MD5: 340990126e81f408f9b95fa6a594a61c

Run VLB2 > vlb2.txt

It should produce a file like this but hopefully with useful results.

On my MS-DOS machine it produces "failure reading drive e. Abort?" prompt.

Unforunately I can't access https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/rbinter/ix/ at the moment.

to find out what Int 24h does.

Here also says "General failure reading drive e" "Abort?" even if I present drive E: but if I press "a" (five times) it writes txt.

Gona wrote on 2025-05-26, 20:57:

sharangad wrote on 2025-05-25, 12:22:

Another test for Gona or anyone with a 3D Blaster VLB: […]
Show full quote

Another test for Gona or anyone with a 3D Blaster VLB:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB2.20240525.001.7z
MD5: 340990126e81f408f9b95fa6a594a61c

Run VLB2 > vlb2.txt

It should produce a file like this but hopefully with useful results.

On my MS-DOS machine it produces "failure reading drive e. Abort?" prompt.

Unforunately I can't access https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/rbinter/ix/ at the moment.

to find out what Int 24h does.

Here also says "General failure reading drive e" "Abort?" even if I present drive E: but if I press "a" (five times) it writes txt.

I've figured out why it does that. Int 24h is used to signal a h/w error. The reason I get that is that in dosbox rebel moon-vlb tries to write to memory address 0xc80Xx which is reserved for dosbox. I think on real h/w it belongs to 3db vlb's address space/memory mapped io. I'm working on converting the writes into a test app. Hopefully it'll be ready sometime today. It looks like it's trying to put the vlb board into mode 0x100 (whatever that is, at least according to the game. 0x100 is written to one of the addresses).

[EDIT] The reason the test app does that is because dosbox-rendition logged the int24h call, but the call is only used by the OS to signal a h/w failure or something. Dosbox uses that address space for something else, which is why it ended up in an int 24h.

@Gona could you try this on your 3DBVLB:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB4.20250529.001.7z
MD5: 3811c0c390648bdeb5e088a1d604ae06

VLB4 > out.txt and paste the contents of out.txt.

This tests Int 0x06 and int 0x12.

sharangad wrote on 2025-05-28, 20:43:

@Gona could you try this on your 3DBVLB: […]
Show full quote

@Gona could you try this on your 3DBVLB:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB4.20250529.001.7z
MD5: 3811c0c390648bdeb5e088a1d604ae06

VLB4 > out.txt and paste the contents of out.txt.

This tests Int 0x06 and int 0x12.

Here it is the VLB4, and I have retest the VLB2 now on a more compatible board (VLB1 also tested on this MB).

Gona wrote on 2025-05-29, 15:50:

sharangad wrote on 2025-05-28, 20:43:

@Gona could you try this on your 3DBVLB: […]
Show full quote

@Gona could you try this on your 3DBVLB:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB4.20250529.001.7z
MD5: 3811c0c390648bdeb5e088a1d604ae06

VLB4 > out.txt and paste the contents of out.txt.

This tests Int 0x06 and int 0x12.

Here it is the VLB4, and I have retest the VLB2 now on a more compatible board (VLB1 also tested on this MB).

Thanks Gona!

@Gona, here's another one for you:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB5.7z
MD5: 2c1f781027d67a0f34894e6def8ecfe6

Extract all the files in there (all of them) into a folder onto a machine with the 3DBVLB and run it with
Run.bat

It should produce an output file which should hopefully be different to the two I've attached here. I think address ranges starting at 0x10000000 and 0xFF000000 are VLB related. I may well be wrong.

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-01, 12:21:

@Gona, here's another one for you: […]
Show full quote

@Gona, here's another one for you:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB5.7z
MD5: 2c1f781027d67a0f34894e6def8ecfe6

Extract all the files in there (all of them) into a folder onto a machine with the 3DBVLB and run it with
Run.bat

It should produce an output file which should hopefully be different to the two I've attached here. I think address ranges starting at 0x10000000 and 0xFF000000 are VLB related. I may well be wrong.

Here it is.

Gona wrote on 2025-06-02, 12:10:

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-01, 12:21:

@Gona, here's another one for you: […]
Show full quote

@Gona, here's another one for you:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB5.7z
MD5: 2c1f781027d67a0f34894e6def8ecfe6

Extract all the files in there (all of them) into a folder onto a machine with the 3DBVLB and run it with
Run.bat

It should produce an output file which should hopefully be different to the two I've attached here. I think address ranges starting at 0x10000000 and 0xFF000000 are VLB related. I may well be wrong.

Here it is.

Thanks Gona! Is that the whole file? It looks to have crashed before dumping extended memory ranges.

Also was this under dos or Windows command prompt?

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-02, 12:44:

Gona wrote on 2025-06-02, 12:10:

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-01, 12:21:

@Gona, here's another one for you: […]
Show full quote

@Gona, here's another one for you:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB5.7z
MD5: 2c1f781027d67a0f34894e6def8ecfe6

Extract all the files in there (all of them) into a folder onto a machine with the 3DBVLB and run it with
Run.bat

It should produce an output file which should hopefully be different to the two I've attached here. I think address ranges starting at 0x10000000 and 0xFF000000 are VLB related. I may well be wrong.

Here it is.

Thanks Gona! Is that the whole file? It looks to have crashed before dumping extended memory ranges.

Also was this under dos or Windows command prompt?

I didn't experience anything suspicious.
It was MS-DOS 6.22

Gona wrote on 2025-06-02, 12:53:

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-02, 12:44:

Gona wrote on 2025-06-02, 12:10:

Here it is.

Thanks Gona! Is that the whole file? It looks to have crashed before dumping extended memory ranges.

Also was this under dos or Windows command prompt?

I didn't experience anything suspicious.
It was MS-DOS 6.22

Oh I get it, sorry. I should've mentioned that. You need the memtrace.txt file in there when you run it. That has a list of memory locations and actions to perform on them,

You need:
dos4gw.exe
memtrace.txt
run.bat
vlb5.exe

(pretty much everything in the zip file).

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-02, 13:23:

Oh I get it, sorry. I should've mentioned that. You need the memtrace.txt file in there when you run it. That has a list of memo […]
Show full quote

Gona wrote on 2025-06-02, 12:53:

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-02, 12:44:

Thanks Gona! Is that the whole file? It looks to have crashed before dumping extended memory ranges.

Also was this under dos or Windows command prompt?

I didn't experience anything suspicious.
It was MS-DOS 6.22

Oh I get it, sorry. I should've mentioned that. You need the memtrace.txt file in there when you run it. That has a list of memory locations and actions to perform on them,

You need:
dos4gw.exe
memtrace.txt
run.bat
vlb5.exe

(pretty much everything in the zip file).

Ahh, OK. I carry files on floppy this is why I left the 3.6 meg txt out.
Now I transfer the TXT too.
If I use
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
I got this:

DOS/4GW error (2001): exception 0Eh (page fault) at 160:0045F46C
TSF32: prev_tsf32 5298
SS 168 DS 168 ES 168 FS 0 GS 20
EAX 0 EBX 46D49D ECX FF001000 EDX 46D752
ESI 0 EDI FF001000 EBP 1 ESP 4B3C5C
CS:IP 160:0045F46C ID 0E COD 450002 FLG 10206
CS= 160, USE32, page granular, limit FFFFFFFF, base 0, acc CF9B
SS= 168, USE32, page granular, limit FFFFFFFF, base 0, acc CF93
DS= 168, USE32, page granular, limit FFFFFFFF, base 0, acc CF93
ES= 168, USE32, page granular, limit FFFFFFFF, base 0, acc CF93
FS= 0, USE16, byte granular, limit 0, base 14, acc 0
GS= 20, USE16, byte granular, limit FFFF, base 12380, acc 93
CR0: PG:1 ET:1 TS:0 EM:0 MP:0 PE:1 CR2: FF001000 CR3: 15000
Crash address (unrelocated) = 1:0000346C

If I use HIMEM only, it freezes and out.txt is empty.

just a side note - if any program uses its own dos4gw memory manager you shouldn't use any other memory managers with it.

robertmo3 wrote on 2025-06-02, 15:13:

just a side note - if any program uses its own dos4gw memory manager you shouldn't use any other memory managers with it.

OK. That's interesting because physical address 0xFF010000 is accessed by rebel moon 1995 [EDIT] in dosbox-rendition[/EDIT]. That should be a rom bios range on the vlb, but I guess it's not.

OK. I'll get you another build in 15 mins that only accesses lower ranges to see what happens.

When you get a chance could you try this?:
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB6.7z
MD5: cc61b5664378ff127f04843691d96da0

Only the run.bat and vlb6.exe files are different, but you will need all the files. This removes the address range 0xFFXXXXXX and queries only 0x01XXXXXX. Let's see if this works. If I'm right, this should be the framebuffer/memory mapped IO range of the card.

Also, in Win98 what're the resources used by the card in device manager, if it's not too much of a bother? I'm interested in ports and address ranges in particular. Until your video went up I didn't even know the VLB could run D3D games (https://youtu.be/4hpnNEi13zc?si=HmpxBduc148WPQ8L).

[EDIT] I think once the resources used by the card are know I should be able to work out which addresses to query.

robertmo3 wrote on 2025-06-02, 15:13:

just a side note - if any program uses its own dos4gw memory manager you shouldn't use any other memory managers with it.

I think you mentioned this before with ICR2. I keep forgetting.

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-02, 15:58:

When you get a chance could you try this?: https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB6.7z MD5: cc61b5664378ff127f04843691d96da0 […]
Show full quote

When you get a chance could you try this?:
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB6.7z
MD5: cc61b5664378ff127f04843691d96da0

Only the run.bat and vlb6.exe files are different, but you will need all the files. This removes the address range 0xFFXXXXXX and queries only 0x01XXXXXX. Let's see if this works. If I'm right, this should be the framebuffer/memory mapped IO range of the card.

Also, in Win98 what're the resources used by the card in device manager, if it's not too much of a bother? I'm interested in ports and address ranges in particular. Until your video went up I didn't even know the VLB could run D3D games (https://youtu.be/4hpnNEi13zc?si=HmpxBduc148WPQ8L).

[EDIT] I think once the resources used by the card are know I should be able to work out which addresses to query.

I'm using SCSI controller, might that has a conflict with the previous version.
The VLB6 runs long and gives big out.txt 😀

Gona wrote on 2025-06-02, 18:16:

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-02, 15:58:

When you get a chance could you try this?: https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB6.7z MD5: cc61b5664378ff127f04843691d96da0 […]
Show full quote

When you get a chance could you try this?:
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/VLB6.7z
MD5: cc61b5664378ff127f04843691d96da0

Only the run.bat and vlb6.exe files are different, but you will need all the files. This removes the address range 0xFFXXXXXX and queries only 0x01XXXXXX. Let's see if this works. If I'm right, this should be the framebuffer/memory mapped IO range of the card.

Also, in Win98 what're the resources used by the card in device manager, if it's not too much of a bother? I'm interested in ports and address ranges in particular. Until your video went up I didn't even know the VLB could run D3D games (https://youtu.be/4hpnNEi13zc?si=HmpxBduc148WPQ8L).

[EDIT] I think once the resources used by the card are know I should be able to work out which addresses to query.

I'm using SCSI controller, might that has a conflict with the previous version.
The VLB6 runs long and gives big out.txt 😀

That's much better. Thanks Gona.