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DOS--Need Help, please!

post #1 of 10
9/24/07 at 6:39pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,


I have some very, and I stress very, simplistic games that launch in DOS--No need for DOSBOX. But with my new machine (9750 running XP) I get this error message when I try to launch any of these games:


The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction.
CS: c000 IP:393e e8 b9 fe 2e Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.


I never had this problem before!

Any help very much appreciated! Thank you!
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post #2 of 10
9/24/07 at 10:35pm
You will probably have better luck running that application under a real MS-DOS or FreeDOS environment, using VMWare or VirtualPC. (I personally recommend VMWare). They have a free version you can download.

For security reasons, modern CPUs and Operating Systems have built-in protections, and go out of their way to restrict "data" regions from being executed as "code".

Older apps, especially DOS apps, had free-reign over all the machine's resources. They often did things which aren't allowed in modern environments.

If you really need to run this app under WinXP or Vista, you will need to investigate which set of protection-switches you need to disable, but I'd strongly advise against doing that.
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post #3 of 10
9/24/07 at 10:40pm
Dual boot XP and DOS?



Zoid
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post #4 of 10
9/24/07 at 11:22pm
XP is built on the NT base, not DOS, so this can be a problem...

Before doing anything, try compatability mode with the games, back to windows 95 or 98.

If that doesn't work, do a google search for running DOS with XP, and there should be some solutions posted.
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post #5 of 10
9/25/07 at 12:25am
Virtual PC is free.

Just need the DOS installation disks... in this case, the floppy disks.
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post #6 of 10
9/25/07 at 3:52am
Thread Starter 
Thanks all... I'll see what I can do. I bought a new Dell desktop in March with XP and had no problem with these simple DOS games so I am diappointed it's such a problem now with this one. Like I said, I'll continue to try!
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post #7 of 10
9/25/07 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GBee
Thanks all... I'll see what I can do. I bought a new Dell desktop in March with XP and had no problem with these simple DOS games so I am diappointed it's such a problem now with this one. Like I said, I'll continue to try!

Oops, didn't catch that part. We have a few legacy business apps at work I need to triple boot Windows 2000, XP Pro and DOS. Other OS's and apps conflict with these Old programs...finally phasing 'em out, but will have to 'em support for a few more years.

But since you know these games work on a XP machine shelled out to DOS...?

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode Command Prompt Only and running the games? Hopefully that will rule out conflicts with other apps. Though I have a few DOS apps that don't like certain programs to reside in the same partition.



Zoid
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post #8 of 10
9/26/07 at 4:35am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boyd View Post
Oops, didn't catch that part. We have a few legacy business apps at work I need to triple boot Windows 2000, XP Pro and DOS. Other OS's and apps conflict with these Old programs...finally phasing 'em out, but will have to 'em support for a few more years. But since you know these games work on a XP machine shelled out to DOS...? Have you tried booting into Safe Mode Command Prompt Only and running the games? Hopefully that will rule out conflicts with other apps. Though I have a few DOS apps that don't like certain programs to reside in the same partition. Zoid
I have tried the command prompt but not in 'safe mode'. I'll try that. Maybe I will need to use DOSBox?! These games run seamlessly on my other 3 XP machines. Perhaps it's the speed of this one, (though my Dell is a dual-core- 2.0) just not an Alien. Thanks for the reply!
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post #9 of 10
9/26/07 at 8:32am
Do the VM thing, seriously. Get VMWare server or Microsoft virtual server and build your own virtual DOS machine. You'll never look back
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post #10 of 10
9/26/07 at 1:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Devoran View Post
Do the VM thing, seriously. Get VMWare server or Microsoft virtual server and build your own virtual DOS machine. You'll never look back
I think that is "over my head" , so to speak. I looked at VMWare and felt lost. I haven't loooked into Microsoft's version. Thanks, though...
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