#AApro
2 messages in this thread
I recently purchased AApro and I have a 386/25 with 4 megs of ram and DOS
5. Do I have to add a memory manager program or can I just use DOS 5?
Hi Carmen,
If you don't need to use a memory manager for other programs, then don't
use it. If you do need to use one (like EMM386), give it all of the
extended ram. The reason for this is that if AA Pro detects an XMS driver
like HIMEM.SYS (DOS 5.0) it will use it to get memory, but if it finds a
VCPI/EMS memory manager, like EMM386, it will use its memory instead. A
very common problem is that people will have HIMEM.SYS installed for XMS
and to allow Dos 5.0 to run high (DOS=HIGH), and then EMM386 installed with
only 256K of memory (its default) just so it can do UMB's (DOS=HIGH,UMB)
for LH and DEVICEHIGH. In this situation, AA Pro can only use the 256K of
memory that EMM386 has and will refuse to run. It is possible to assign
more memory to EMM386 by putting a number after it in the CONFIG.SYS
(device=EMM386.EXE 4096) to make AA Pro happy, but this same number will
take memory away from Windows, if you need to run it. The solution to
this problem can be found in comercial memory managers like QEMM and 386MAX
that can dynamically assign memory between XMS, VCPI, and EMS without any
fixed limits in any one category.
So, to simplify:
1. Don't use HIMEM or EMM386 if you can help it.
2. Its okay to use HIMEM without EMM386.
3. If you do use EMM386, then make sure it gets all the available memory.
4. If you also use Windows with EMM386, go get another memory manager thats
more flexible.
-GB-