# conventional memory



## Nadia (Jul 17, 2003)

Hello people. i was wondering if you could help me out in something so here goes:
i have a Dos game that i want to play on my windows xp system, and i get a message saying that additional conventional memory is needed in order to play it. i surfed some websites and they told me that if i want to free up memory i'm gonna have to edit the Config.sys & Autoexec.bat files and add some command lines which include the following: 

emm386.exe
drvspace.sys
himem.sys

i searched my system and found that i only have the himem.sys file but not the other two. Also, i don't have something called Config.sys and Autoexec.bat, instead i have Config.nt & Autoexec.nt. are those the same as the .sys and .bat? can i edit them? 
and if i can, will i have to like get the nesseccery files from the internet and attach them to the two files? will it work if i do? cause i don't have the Dos OS on my system, i only have Command Prompt. 
i know i'm asking too many questions. i'd really appreciate the help  

Thanks in advance you guys


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## giskard (Jun 27, 2003)

Could you go to the DOS prompt and type the following:

MEM/D > C:\MEMORY.TXT

Then post the contents of memory.txt to the forum. Just open it with notepad.


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## Nadia (Jul 17, 2003)

hey giskard.. i did what you told me. here's the text file: 


Address Name Size Type 
------- -------- ------ ------
000000 000400 Interrupt Vector
000400 000100 ROM Communication Area
000500 000200 DOS Communication Area

000700 IO 000370 System Data
CON System Device Driver 
AUX System Device Driver 
PRN System Device Driver 
CLOCK$ System Device Driver 
COM1 System Device Driver 
LPT1 System Device Driver 
LPT2 System Device Driver 
LPT3 System Device Driver 
COM2 System Device Driver 
COM3 System Device Driver 
COM4 System Device Driver 

000A70 MSDOS 001630 System Data

0020A0 IO 002030 System Data
KBD 000CE0 System Program 
HIMEM 0004E0 DEVICE= 
XMSXXXX0 Installed Device Driver 
000490 FILES= 
000090 FCBS= 
000120 LASTDRIVE= 
0007D0 STACKS= 
0040E0 COMMAND 000A20 Program 
004B10 MSDOS 000070 -- Free --
004B90 COMMAND 000480 Environment
005020 DOSX 0087A0 Program 
00D7D0 MEM 0003C0 Environment
00DBA0 MEM 0174E0 Program 
025090 MSDOS 07AF50 -- Free --
09FFF0 SYSTEM 02E000 System Program

0CE000 MSDOS 0003A0 -- Free --
0CE3B0 MSCDEXNT 0001D0 Program 
0CE590 DOSX 000080 Data 
0CE620 MSDOS 0003C0 -- Free --
0CE9F0 NW16 0009D0 Program 
0CF3D0 MSDOS 000710 -- Free --
0CFAF0 MSDOS 0004F0 -- Free --
0CFFF0 SYSTEM 008000 System Program

0D8000 IO 003100 System Data
MOUSE  0030F0 System Program 
0DB110 REDIR 000A70 Program 
0DBB90 MSDOS 004460 -- Free --


655360 bytes total conventional memory
655360 bytes available to MS-DOS
599104 largest executable program size

1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

hope this'll help.. thankz


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## giskard (Jun 27, 2003)

Post copies of the Autoexec.nt and Config.nt, they're text files that you can open with notepad.

You're using XP aren't you, not win2K?


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## Nadia (Jul 17, 2003)

ok, here are the two file. i'm working on windows XP

-->autoexec.nt:

@echo off

REM AUTOEXEC.BAT is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.
REM AUTOEXEC.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a
REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF.

REM Install CD ROM extensions
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe

REM Install network redirector (load before dosx.exe)
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir

REM Install DPMI support
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx

REM The following line enables Sound Blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM.
REM The command for setting the BLASTER environment is as follows:
REM SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330
REM where:
REM A specifies the sound blaster's base I/O port
REM I specifies the interrupt request line
REM D specifies the 8-bit DMA channel
REM P specifies the MPU-401 base I/O port
REM T specifies the type of sound blaster card
REM 1 - Sound Blaster 1.5
REM 2 - Sound Blaster Pro I
REM 3 - Sound Blaster 2.0
REM 4 - Sound Blaster Pro II
REM 6 - SOund Blaster 16/AWE 32/32/64
REM
REM The default value is A220 I5 D1 T3 and P330. If any of the switches is
REM left unspecified, the default value will be used. (NOTE, since all the
REM ports are virtualized, the information provided here does not have to
REM match the real hardware setting.) NTVDM supports Sound Blaster 2.0 only.
REM The T switch must be set to 3, if specified.
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3

REM To disable the sound blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM, specify an invalid
REM SB base I/O port address. For example:
REM SET BLASTER=A0
REM Install network redirector

lh %SystemRoot%\system32\nw16

lh %SystemRoot%\system32\vwipxspx

-->Config.nt:

REM Windows MS-DOS Startup File
REM
REM CONFIG.SYS vs CONFIG.NT
REM CONFIG.SYS is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.
REM CONFIG.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a
REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF.
REM
REM ECHOCONFIG
REM By default, no information is displayed when the MS-DOS environment
REM is initialized. To display CONFIG.NT/AUTOEXEC.NT information, add
REM the command echoconfig to CONFIG.NT or other startup file.
REM
REM NTCMDPROMPT
REM When you return to the command prompt from a TSR or while running an
REM MS-DOS-based application, Windows runs COMMAND.COM. This allows the
REM TSR to remain active. To run CMD.EXE, the Windows command prompt,
REM rather than COMMAND.COM, add the command ntcmdprompt to CONFIG.NT or
REM other startup file.
REM
REM DOSONLY
REM By default, you can start any type of application when running
REM COMMAND.COM. If you start an application other than an MS-DOS-based
REM application, any running TSR may be disrupted. To ensure that only
REM MS-DOS-based applications can be started, add the command dosonly to
REM CONFIG.NT or other startup file.
REM
REM EMM
REM You can use EMM command line to configure EMM(Expanded Memory Manager).
REM The syntax is:
REM
REM EMM = [A=AltRegSets] [B=BaseSegment] [RAM]
REM
REM AltRegSets
REM specifies the total Alternative Mapping Register Sets you
REM want the system to support. 1 <= AltRegSets <= 255. The
REM default value is 8.
REM BaseSegment
REM specifies the starting segment address in the Dos conventional
REM memory you want the system to allocate for EMM page frames.
REM The value must be given in Hexdecimal.
REM 0x1000 <= BaseSegment <= 0x4000. The value is rounded down to
REM 16KB boundary. The default value is 0x4000
REM RAM
REM specifies that the system should only allocate 64Kb address
REM space from the Upper Memory Block(UMB) area for EMM page frames
REM and leave the rests(if available) to be used by DOS to support
REM loadhigh and devicehigh commands. The system, by default, would
REM allocate all possible and available UMB for page frames.
REM
REM The EMM size is determined by pif file(either the one associated
REM with your application or _default.pif). If the size from PIF file
REM is zero, EMM will be disabled and the EMM line will be ignored.
REM
dos=high, umb
device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys
files=40


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## giskard (Jun 27, 2003)

Not really much to work with. Everything seems to be loading high out of conventional memory. I don't see anything that can be unloaded or changed.

One thing you might what to try is going into the properties for the program. Right-click the program's icon and select properties, and in the memory tab change conventional memory from auto to 600 or 640.


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## Nadia (Jul 17, 2003)

Hey, tried that, didn't work. it just keeps telling me that there's not enough free conventional memory. anywayz.. i think it somehow needs the Dos OS along with the XP one cause i tried the game on another system that had 98 with Dos and it worked ok. Command Prompt isn't quite enough heh

thankz alot for the help giskard


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## giskard (Jun 27, 2003)

Sorry I couldn't help more, but keep checking back someone may have the answer. I did find these links that may help.

http://www.longhighway.com/sandbox/xp.html
http://staticline.scenespot.org/issues/sl-040.txt


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## giskard (Jun 27, 2003)

Go down to the article "Using Impulse Tracker in Windows XP" in the second link (sl-040.txt) I gave. It's about an old DOS game and how to get it working.


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