QEMM? (Though that's a commercial product)

I use URAM on my SIS 496-based board. It can be downloaded from Uwe Siebers UMBPCI page (scroll down to the links section).

Like EMM386, QEMM puts the CPU in V86 mode, so it won't work with a few older games.

5u3 wrote:

Like EMM386, QEMM puts the CPU in V86 mode, so it won't work with a few older games.

Does it do that even with the NOEMS switch?

edit: images links edited to remove clutter

yeah AFAIK QEMM puts the machine in V86 mode too

@5u3:

I did try URAM, all I get it doing is report some stuff but does not really make any UMB blocks available... here is what it displays on boot (I got it use c800-e000 just to be safe):

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p55/restqp … 120313-1305.jpg

and here are the addresses of roms in the HMA area...

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p55/restqp … 120313-1310.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p55/restqp … 120313-1308.jpg

and MSD too:

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p55/restqp … 120313-1354.jpg

I have no idea what to try next tbh , I feel so dumb right now... 🤣

edit2: Did some more testing with bad results...
loading UMB.SYS for D000-E000 (which is in the middle of the free HMA memory I have) just freezes the machine ... 😢
Also trying to use a memory diagnostic/report utility after URAM initializes any portion of HMA leads to a freeze

edit3: this is what hiram reports on boot (loaded as a deviec driver from config.sys)

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p55/restqp … 120313-1419.jpg

Does JEMM386 provide UMB without putting the cpu into virtual mode?

@keropi: Just noticed that the version of URAM I linked above is from 2003, while the one I actually have on my 486 is from 1998. Turns out the newer version just crashes my 486 when trying to detect free UMB blocks.

Here is the version from 1998 if you want give it a try:
Edit: attachment deleted, see Keropi's link below...

ah thanks 5u3, I will try it tomorrow at my office where the machine is 😀
do you also load UMB.SYS as well to get the ram allocated?

Try something like this in CONFIG.SYS:

1...
2device=URAM.COM R=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
3device=UMB.SYS C800-E800
4device=HIMEM.SYS
5...

sidenote: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/util_e.html hosts a full package of URAM 5.8.1998

SUCCESS!!! the old 1998 URAM works perfect!
thanks 5u3 that noticed that 😊 , I freed ~147kb of UMB on my mobo, more than triple of what I need 😊
this is turning a nice 5x86 machine, got UMB working, ftp server working... 😅

I will attach here the 5.8.1998 version of URAM for future reference as well, apparently the 2003 version has probs with at least SIS mobos....

Congratulations! 😁
Those "hardware" UMB drivers really come in handy once you get them to work.

yes, they are an absolute MUST HAVE in cases you need an environment without EMS...

I gave a shot with my PS1/pro machine, none of the utils work on it though... uram complains it can't detect the chipset ... forcing it just hangs the machine.... no biggie though as I don't have a cdrom on this machine (can't fit a normal one and can't find the specific IBM one) so I get ~610kb of free conventional under xms config.

Thanks to this thread, I was able to get UMBs working with URAM. The 1998 version of URAM is quite an extraordinary program. Oh, and Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle run just fine with it. I have one fully contiguous 192K UMB from C800-EFFF. (EMM386 would give an extra 32K from B800-BFFF) My 486 system uses the SiS 85C471 chip. HIRAM would not work with it, I experienced the same problem as Keropi. The only downside I can see is that floppy drives will be unreadable, but that is why I MS=-DOS 6.22 with its multiple configuration support.

Here are the relevant lines in my config.sys :

DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\URAM\URAM.COM R=..........7777777777.... I
DEVICE=C:\URAM\UMB.SYS C800-EFFF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS

Here are my results :

Great Hierophant wrote:

The only downside I can see is that floppy drives will be unreadable, but that is why I MS=-DOS 6.22 with its multiple configuration support.

Are you loading SMARTDRV high? If so, that is likely your problem, most SiS chipsets don't support ISA DMA into the shadow memory, disable floppy caching with the "A-" switch and you should be fine. There are workarounds involving "split loading" of SMARTDRV between conventional and high memory or double buffering (DMA to conventional and transfer to UMB) but its just easier to disable the caching. I couldn't get HIRAM to work with my SiS 85c411/406 EISA board, but "The Last Byte" worked fine. The readme for HIRAM notes that the SiS scripts were untested.

Edit: Heh, I noticed the URAM readme gives away a registration key for "The Last Byte"!

NJRoadfan wrote:

Great Hierophant wrote:

The only downside I can see is that floppy drives will be unreadable, but that is why I MS=-DOS 6.22 with its multiple configuration support.

Are you loading SMARTDRV high? If so, that is likely your problem, most SiS chipsets don't support ISA DMA into the shadow memory, disable floppy caching with the "A-" switch and you should be fine. There are workarounds involving "split loading" of SMARTDRV between conventional and high memory or double buffering (DMA to conventional and transfer to UMB) but its just easier to disable the caching. I couldn't get HIRAM to work with my SiS 85c411/406 EISA board, but "The Last Byte" worked fine. The readme for HIRAM notes that the SiS scripts were untested.

Edit: Heh, I noticed the URAM readme gives away a registration key for "The Last Byte"!

That fixed the floppy drive read issue, the drives work properly now. Thx for the tip.