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EMS memory not available

post #1 of 9
1/10/07 at 3:13am
Thread Starter 
I have a Sager 4060. I have a dual boot DOS/XP setup. In DOS, I can force the emm386.exe to create EMS memory in certain memory ranges, but there is obviously a conflict with some onboard hardware. It will lock up in some ranges, not in others, but I'm fine with that because I can make it work. In XP, however, EMS memory is disabled completely. This is not a MAJOR problem, but I would like to have access to EMS in windows. I have tried to disable all devices (USB, Modem, Firewire, etc..) in the bios, but this does not help. Any help with this would be appreciated.
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post #2 of 9
1/10/07 at 3:51am
What are you doing that requires EMS?
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post #3 of 9
1/10/07 at 5:38am
Thread Starter 
I use these notebooks at work and we use a handfull of older DOS programs that either use or require EMS memory for proper fuctionality. Again, I can live with the situation as is, but it would help greatly if I could get it working in Windows. I can run all of these programs on other laptops in windows by creating individual pif shortcuts for each. This is the easiest and most hassle free setup because we also have some applications that are windows based as well.
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post #4 of 9
1/21/07 at 9:23pm
Well, I can't really help you solve the problem, but a workaround might be DOSBOX. It's a x86 emulator with dos. Get Dosbox and a launcher (I use DOG) and you can run old dos programs, and there are options for emulating XMS and EMS memory.

It's VGA emulation is pretty slow though, so if you use anything with lots of graphics in dos, don't expect it to run full speed
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post #5 of 9
1/22/07 at 4:57pm
Thread Starter 
Thanx, Ill give it a try...
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post #6 of 9
1/22/07 at 11:47pm
Sorry, didn't see you respond.

If you're looking at emulation, you can install Virtual PC 2004 SP1.

It's free, and then you can install a full DOS machine if necessary for all your legacy applications.

It will virtualize all the hardware, including memory, so you won't have any conflicts with your real hardware.

Virtual PC 2004 SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en
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post #7 of 9
1/23/07 at 10:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrogmanTM
I have a Sager 4060. I have a dual boot DOS/XP setup. In DOS, I can force the emm386.exe to create EMS memory in certain memory ranges, but there is obviously a conflict with some onboard hardware. It will lock up in some ranges, not in others, but I'm fine with that because I can make it work. In XP, however, EMS memory is disabled completely. This is not a MAJOR problem, but I would like to have access to EMS in windows. I have tried to disable all devices (USB, Modem, Firewire, etc..) in the bios, but this does not help. Any help with this would be appreciated.

Hi,

I read where you disabled several devices (can I assume this was done in BIOS, and not device manager). That was a good start, but often the problem lies in onboard graphics or on board network card, which you probably need.

And from what I read further on, it seems you a shortcut file and manipulated the compatibility settings, but did you edit the config.nt file?

To access EMS memory in windows xp, you need to create the shortcut file and make whatever needed compatbility settings AND add the following line
to Config.nt, either before or after the files=60 line.

EMM=RAM

Then press Enter at the end of the line so that there is a blank line following it. (If you want to put a space before and after the equals sign, feel free to do so; the result is the same with or without the spaces.) Save the file.

Then just to be on the safe side, and to ensure future files are set up correctly, modify the file named _default.pif (note the underscore) in your Windows directory

Right-click on it, and choose Properties. Go to the Memory tab and specify the largest available amount of Expanded (EMS) memory and the largest available amount of Extended (XMS) memory. Click OK, and exit

....now, create the PiF file (throw out the old one you created) and edit settings as needed.
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post #8 of 9
1/23/07 at 9:46pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you gerryf, but I already tried all that you described. The problem is XP disabled EMS alltogether because of onboard devices using these resources. Thanx anyway...
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post #9 of 9
1/23/07 at 9:50pm
Thread Starter 
A big thanx to all of your help in trying to resolve my problem. From what I can see, my solution is an emulator. I tried both DOSBOX and Virtual PC, and found that DOSBOX is my best solution. It provides full EMS memory emulation, and so far, all of the applications I have thrown at it, work perfectly. Again, I appreciate all of the help!
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