wnbell@sybil.cs.Buffalo.EDU (William Bell) (11/14/89)
Hi! I am using AMI BIOS (c)1989 on my '386. I have a problem and a quick question. 1st I am using the Seagate ST277R-1 65MB RLL Hard Drive, and the 1:1 Controller from WD (WD1006SR2). I looked at my CMOS setup the other day and the Disk Type was #10 which means: Type = 10, Cylinders=820, Heads=3, Write-precomp=NONE, LZ=820,Capacity=21 MB. But my Seagate says: (ST277R) Capacity=65MB, Read/Write Heads=6, Data Cylinders=820, Access Time=40msec, Write Precompensation==N/A. I have not had any problems with using type 10. Why? I was going to try Type 47 (userdefined), I could set everything but the capacity. That seems to be stuck at a fixed value of 27 or so. SHould I change it??? My question: I saw an option to change CMOS to have "Shadow RAM". I can enable BIOS Shadow RAm, EGA Shadow RAM, and Interleave Memory. Should I enable all 3 types?pes??? What does Shadow RAM mean? BIOS Shadow RAM seemed to speed up the CPU. Also, I have 1MB installed. The computer BIOS at BOOT-UP checks from 0-1024KB, but I cannot get use from 640K-1MB. I tried the emm.sys that comes with MSDOS 4.01 but it says memory is not available. I know this memory is called expanded memory. I want to command.com in a ramdisk in this memory to speed up shelling to DOS, etc... How do I do this?? I tried enabling between 640K-1MB in CMOS, but I get 8 beeps when I boot up (and must change this back).... Out Of Touch BBS - 716-825-4268 from 8pm-8am! FIDO 1:260/170... Online games!
plim@hpsgpa.HP.COM (Peter Lim) (11/15/89)
> Hi! I am using AMI BIOS (c)1989 on my '386. I have a problem and a quick > Me too. Skip the hard disk bit, I don't know much in that area. > My question: > I saw an option to change CMOS to have "Shadow RAM". I can enable > BIOS Shadow RAm, EGA Shadow RAM, and Interleave Memory. > Should I enable all 3 types?pes??? What does Shadow RAM mean? BIOS > Shadow RAM seemed to speed up the CPU. > Go ahead, enable all 3 types and the PC will decide which one to turn off at run time if not applicable. Shadow RAM means copying the content of ROM into RAM and from then on run using the RAM, and of course it speeds up the system as RAM runs a lot faster than ROM. > Also, I have 1MB installed. The computer BIOS at BOOT-UP checks > from 0-1024KB, but I cannot get use from 640K-1MB. I tried > the emm.sys that comes with MSDOS 4.01 but it says memory is not > available. I know this memory is called expanded memory. > I want to command.com in a ramdisk in this memory to > speed up shelling to DOS, etc... How do I do this?? > I tried enabling between 640K-1MB in CMOS, but I get 8 beeps when I > boot up (and must change this back).... > I think you can't recover the 384K between 640K and 1Meg. As far as I know, they are dedicated to shadow RAM usage and are simply not used if shadow RAM is off. Don't know, some machine might allow you to remap these RAM to above 1Meg with some switch setting. Now if you are running a 386, then you might like to use QEMM from Quaterdeck which allows you to load most of your TSR into the memory in between 640K and 1Meg which are not used. I managed to enable the 64K just above 640K and get a total of 704K for DOS. I was using Hercules which did not use this memory range. Regards, Peter Lim. HP Singapore IC Design Center. E-mail address: plim@hpsgwg Snail Mail address: Peter Lim Hewlett Packard Singapore, (ICDS, ICS) 1150, Depot Road, Singapore 0410. Telephone: (065)-279-2289
nfs0294@dsac.UUCP (Glendell R. Midkiff) (11/16/89)
From article <13225@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>, by wnbell@sybil.cs.Buffalo.EDU (William Bell): > Hi! I am using AMI BIOS (c)1989 on my '386. I have a problem and a quick > question. 1st I am using the Seagate ST277R-1 65MB RLL Hard Drive, and > the 1:1 Controller from WD (WD1006SR2). I looked at my CMOS setup the other > day and the Disk Type was #10 which means: > Type = 10, Cylinders=820, Heads=3, Write-precomp=NONE, LZ=820,Capacity=21 MB. > But my Seagate says: (ST277R) > Capacity=65MB, Read/Write Heads=6, Data Cylinders=820, Access Time=40msec, > Write Precompensation==N/A. > I have not had any problems with using type 10. Why? I was going to > try Type 47 (userdefined), I could set everything but the capacity. > That seems to be stuck at a fixed value of 27 or so. SHould I change it??? > I have a similar situation with my Adaptec 2372B RLL controller. According to what I read in the documentation, the controller has its own internal drive type table and will automatically set your CMOS when you low level format the drive. In other words, the drive type you see in your CMOS does not equate to the drive type of your BIOS but instead to another drive type table on the controller. So the bottom line is...DONT CHANGE IT. In response to your other question, if you want to use the 384k of extended memory as a ram drive, use VDISK which comes as part of DOS. Reference your DOS manual for format on the CONFIG.SYS statement that activates the RAM drive. -- |-----------------------------------------------------------------------| |Glen Midkiff osu-cis!dsacg1!gmidkiff | |From the Internet: gmidkiff@dsac.dla.mil | |Phone: (614)-238-9643 @DLA, Systems Automation Center, Columbus, Oh. |
djb@bbt.UUCP (beauvais) (11/18/89)
In article <13225@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> wnbell@sybil.cs.Buffalo.EDU.UUCP (William Bell) writes: >I saw an option to change CMOS to have "Shadow RAM". I can enable >BIOS Shadow RAm, EGA Shadow RAM, and Interleave Memory. >Should I enable all 3 types?pes??? What does Shadow RAM mean? BIOS >Shadow RAM seemed to speed up the CPU. BIOS and the built in program for the low level operation of your EGA card is stored in ROM (Read Only Memory). ROMs are relatively slow devices, and need to insert "wait states" to waste CPU time while they fetch the data you requested. RAM access is faster, usually requiring no wait states. Many BIOSes have a provision for copying the contents of the pokey ROMs into speedy RAMs. Then, circuitry is enabled which disables the ROM, and maps the RAM (with the ROM's contents) in their place. Thus, your CPU spends much less time twiddling its thumbs waiting for ROM data. Hope this helps! PS - BIOS and the video adapters are mapped into the space between 640K and 1024K (1 MB). -- Dan Beauvais {backbone}!rti!bbt!djb@mcnc.mcnc.org BroadBand Technologies, Inc., Box 13737, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 (919)-544-6850 x 295