CompuServe Thread

#speedway no loading high

2 messages in this thread
#31583From: Nov 24, 1992 9:58 AM
Well, the first thing I would check is that MSD.EXE or some other utility shows that you have UMB space still available. It's possible that Speedway was the program chosen by OPTIMIZE to sit low allowing other utilities to be loaded high. An include statement in QEMM will give you extra UMB space to use as well. This can get a little tricky, so before moving Include statements into QEMM, be sure there isn't some device using that memory space. Are you using the configuration editor when setting buffers and other parameters? Depending on your system configuration (386/486?) the number of buffers can make a difference to overall system performance. Yes, a larger disk amount can help, but depending on the disk, it might be a mute point. Try 8 Meg. – 12 Meg. as a starting point. If your application programs are potentially larger, see if 15-20 Meg. will improve. I'd like a better handle on your configuration. Can you e-mail or let me know through the forum what you have. I'll be happy to get it working for you. Reese.
#31637From: Doc ClineNov 24, 1992 11:02 PM
Thanks for the response. I can send you more information if needed. Probably be best to switch to email if you need more details. I've complex config.sys and autoexec files. Most of the parameters come from hours of trial and err with QEMM. I've got RAMDRIVE, Stacker, two SCSI drivers, MSCDEX, QDPMI, DOSKEY, SMARTDRV, and a Diamond Stealth VRAM vga to muddle the water. The thing is, I stripped autoexec.bat and config.sys down to minimums and still couldn't get speedway to load high, which surprised me. If temporarilly eliminating MSCDEX, QDPMI, DOSKEY, SMARDRV, and RAMDRIVE didn't free up enough memory to let me load speedway high, it's unlikely I can do it with tuning when I do have them installed. I'm probably really out of high memory. But, even with speedway loaded low I've got nearly 590K free. The system is a 485/50 with 16Meg of 60ns RAM. I've an Adaptec 1542B controller running a 300Meg SCSI drive, and I've got Stacker on it; free disk space is a couple hundred Meg. I'm using a separate NEC controller for my NEC 84 cdrom player, so it's got it's own SCSI driver. (I didn't buy the 486 outright, I upgraded parts a piece at a time. I only lack a chassis and power supply to reassemble the 386 and have it running too; meanwhile, everything goes into the 486). I get the same results with setting BUF: whether I do it as a DOS command or in the Configuration Editor – the computer locks up. I have BUFFERS=10 in config.sys. I think that figure was suggested by Quarterdeck or Microsoft in a tech note. I've extra disk space, a fast disk and SMARTDRV, so I could make a serious cache for speedway. Perhaps trial and error is best, giving it a larger cache seems to be a tradeoff of longer loading time in return for quicker access later.