Hi Rugxulo, Yes, I have considered the possibility that it might be a hardware problem. Wouldn't be that surprising given that's a 25 years old machine. I also resoldered lots of stuff fixing PCB traces and replacing a few passive components because the mainboard was in a very poor state when I got it, due to an evil battery leak. But the problem I have is happening only with XMS, and it does work almost perfectly with FDXMS (with the exception of Wolf3D not detecting XMS), so I'd rather think there is something non-standard about this 386SX, and that it does something differently than expected by most XMS managers. That's one of the first 32bit machines after all - plenty of space for non-standard solutions. Plus, the BIOS memory test passes all right, and other XMS-relying programs work fine, too.
I will follow your suggestion and test newer versions of HIMEMX and XMSGR, even if unofficial/closedsource, just for the sake of knowing whether it changes anything. Then indeed, my next plan was to install MSDOS and see if it works fine, but I thought it might be a good idea to ask around here first for some first-hand experience. cheers, Mateusz On 25/08/2015 05:48, Rugxulo wrote: > Hi, > > On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 12:33 PM, Mateusz Viste <mate...@viste.fr> wrote: >> >> I am confident there are many 386 owners here - what do you use for XMS >> management on your systems? > > Sadly, I don't share your optimism. I hope I'm wrong, but most people > with legacy machines just aren't active anymore. (Even I don't have > any old machines hooked up, for various reasons.) > >> I am working on a 1990 386SX with 4M of RAM these days, and I have some >> troubles setting up XMS management on it. >> >> Here's what happens: >> >> * HIMEMX v3.32: freezes the PC at boot time (I tried all possible A20 >> management policies, doesn't change anything) > > Did you try Rod P.'s (unofficial) 3.34 version? > >> * XMGR 4-aug-2012: freezes the PC at boot time (I tried all possible A20 >> management policies, doesn't change anything) > > Try to use latest "Mar-05" (2015), and see if it makes a difference. > >> * FDXMS 0.94: loads fine, most applications work fine, but Wolf3D >> detects no XMS memory. > > Try a newer port (e.g. Wolf4GW) of that one app. Not a real solution, > but it's better than nothing if that is your only hangup. > >> * FDXXMS 0.94: loads fine, but 'mem' displays all extended memory as "used". > > I can't remember, but FDXXMS (I think??) supposedly had a bug where it > would forget what it found if your BIOS didn't do something properly. > (I think Martin S. is still somewhat active behind the scenes on > comp.os.msdos.djgpp, so you could try emailing him.) > > Actually, I think I tried FDXMS and pals on this new-ish (2011) > machine and had problems, so I gave up on even alternating (config.sys > menu) with using them at all. For now, I'm just exclusively running > HIMEMX. > >> * FDXMS286 0.03: loads fine, all applications work fine (including >> Wolf3D), but the system freezes randomly just after launching or >> quitting applications (even if these applications do not use XMS). > > At this point, I'd almost wonder if it is a hardware problem. Of > course, the only way to find out is run a competing DOS (e.g. MS or > DR) and see if that too has problems. (Or memtest or whatever. Not > totally sure and can't remember about using the old DOS port of that, > ask Eric.) > >> FDXMS 0.94 seems to be the most reliable yet on this system, but still >> not perfect (Wolf3D doesn't see any XMS memory). > > So literally everything else you tried runs fine?? You'd be very lucky > to only have (found) such a bug in Wolf3D. Obviously you seem to imply > that it's something else, but if it truly is only that one game that > messes up, just use a newer port: > > https://github.com/TobiasKarnat/Wolf4GW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
