[comp.sys.atari.st] Memory Shortage Problem????

cbz@mhuxu.UUCP (03/04/87)

As usual, I only post something when I have a problem.  Anyway, here goes.
I recently installed the TOS ROM chips in my 520ST and then set up a 100k
"eternal" RAMdisk.  Everything was fine until I tried to run the drawing
program, NEO-CHROME.  An alert box appeared and said "The computer does
not have enough memory for the application you are trying to run".  This
is strange because NEO.PRG is only a 57k program and my Free RAM checker
desk accessory tells me I have almost 200kbytes free.  Besides that, a much
larger program such as STBASIC (140k) runs just fine.  Has anyone else
had this problem?  Did I screw something up when installing the ROMs?  Any
help would be GREATLY appreciated.  

P.S.  When I reduce the RAMdisk to 80k, NEO.PRG runs, but is buggy.

Craig Ziemer at AT&T-BL

dyer@atari.UUCP (Landon Dyer) (03/06/87)

> This
> is strange because NEO.PRG is only a 57k program and my Free RAM checker
> desk accessory tells me I have almost 200kbytes free.  Besides that, a much
> larger program such as STBASIC (140k) runs just fine.  Has anyone else
> had this problem?  Did I screw something up when installing the ROMs?  Any
> help would be GREATLY appreciated.  

The size of a program on disk has little to do with the extra
storage the program may require when it is run.  (You could
easily write a 1K program that needed 1 meg to run).

Neochrome simply needs a lot of memory for screen and cut
buffers.  You did NOT screw anything up installing the ROMs.

-- 
-Landon Dyer, Atari Corp.	    {sun,lll-lcc,imagen}!atari!dyer

The views expressed here do not not
necessarily reflect those of Atari Corp.	Segments are for worms.

leavens@atari.UUCP (Alex Leavens) (03/06/87)

> ...Eternal ramdisc, and NEO doesnt' run.
> P.S.  When I reduce the RAMdisk to 80k, NEO.PRG runs, but is buggy.

  A number of the ramdiscs on the market chew up memory in odd ways,
especially the ones that are supposed to survive reset.  I'd try a 
different eternal ramdisc, and see if that fixes the problem.

--alex @ Atari

BIX: alexl.         GEnie: ALEXLEAVENS       AtariCorp: 408-745-2006