gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (George Wang) (09/27/90)
I'm having a problem with my new Zeos 386-20DX laptop... It comes with the PHEONIX 386 BIOS PLUS V 1.10 22 revision... It now has ONE MEG of RAM installed... The problem I'm having with the Pheonix 386 BIOS is that it REFUSES TO LET ME USE THE 384K ABOVE 640K AS EXTENDED OR EXPANDED MEMORY!! It says that the 384K IS *RESERVED* and I can't get the BIOS to free it up... I've disable all bios, video ram, shadowing etc. since they aren't too important to me (since I thought the 384K was allocated to all those speed up features..) However, the 384K is not usable!! Since I have one meg do you know why I can't use the 384K??? On my old AT desktop I was always able to use the 384K as extended memory.. Now this 386 BIOS won't.... Is there anyway to use that 384K It sure seems like a big waste if it's "reserved" for nothing... Oh well... Thanks George -- George Wang University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (217) 332-4019 INTERNET: gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu UUCP: gargoyle!igloo!gwang
mfrohman@digi.lonestar.org (Matthew Frohman) (09/27/90)
I have a Micronics 386/20 and I have the same problem. However, Micronics
provided several utility disks with my machine. One of the utilities
re-captures the 384K of RAM and I use is as EXPANDED memory for a ramdisk.
If you received utility disks with your machine check them, or call the
company you ordered from. That is how I found out about it.
By the way, I have Phoenix Bios v1.10 as well. . .
Matthew
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Matthew Frohman texbell!digi!mfrohman OR mfrohman@digi.UUCP
OR mfrohman@digi.lonestar.org
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Matthew Frohman texbell!digi!mfrohman OR mfrohman@digi.UUCP
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------john@karnak.uucp (John B. Meaders Jr.) (09/28/90)
In article <1990Sep26.233311.8081@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (George Wang) writes: >I'm having a problem with my new Zeos 386-20DX laptop... > >It comes with the PHEONIX 386 BIOS PLUS V 1.10 22 >revision... It now has ONE MEG of RAM installed... The problem >I'm having with the Pheonix 386 BIOS is that it REFUSES >TO LET ME USE THE 384K ABOVE 640K AS EXTENDED OR EXPANDED MEMORY!! Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think you will be able to use that 384K. That is the shadow area. I have 8Mb on my machine so it isn't a problem (I have a generic 386 w/AMI Bios). I understand your dismay, but I don't think there is a way around it, except to get more memory. It should accept everything above 1Mb. -- John B. Meaders, Jr. 510 Manchester Ct., Hopewell, VA 23806 Voice: 804-451-2983 Net: john@karnak or {sequoia,sulaco,letni}!karnak!john
fredch@starlite.hf.intel.com (09/28/90)
Various BIOS seem to handle the 384K between 640K and 1M in different ways. My 386DX system at work has Phoenix BIOS, uses the 386K for shadow, period. However, my 386SX at home has AMI BIOS. It permits me to select portions of the 384K for shadow (in chunks of 128K) and lets me map the leftovers into extended memory. Hence, the 2MB is split thus: 640K base 256K system and video BIOS shadow 1152K extended (of which 128K is mapped from the 384K) Btw, the BIOS call that returns the amount of extended memory also says 1152K, so things look pretty shipshape. ---------- Fred Christiansen, Intel, JF1-67 503-696-4214 | fredch@starlite.hf.intel.com 5200 NE Elam Young Prkwy, Hillsboro, OR 97124 | uunet!intelhf!starlite!fredch Children spell love this way: t-i-m-e. "Quality time" must be in quantity.
felton@eng3.UUCP (Ed Felton) (10/01/90)
Can you believe john@karnak.uucp (John B. Meaders Jr.) said: |In article <1990Sep26.233311.8081@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu| gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (George Wang) writes: ||I'm having a problem with my new Zeos 386-20DX laptop... || ||It comes with the PHEONIX 386 BIOS PLUS V 1.10 22 ||revision... It now has ONE MEG of RAM installed... The problem ||I'm having with the Pheonix 386 BIOS is that it REFUSES ||TO LET ME USE THE 384K ABOVE 640K AS EXTENDED OR EXPANDED MEMORY!! | |Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think you will be able to use |that 384K. That is the shadow area. I have 8Mb on my machine so it isn't |a problem (I have a generic 386 w/AMI Bios). I understand your dismay, |but I don't think there is a way around it, except to get more memory. It |should accept everything above 1Mb. -- CORRECTION -- You can regain the use of shadow ram in most cases (at least with a Pheonix BIOS) with properly written utility software, like 386MAX that I mentioned friday in response to the original message!. -- END CORRECTION -- |-- |John B. Meaders, Jr. |510 Manchester Ct., Hopewell, VA 23806 |Voice: 804-451-2983 |Net: john@karnak or {sequoia,sulaco,letni}!karnak!john -- Ed Felton | When you wish to produce a result by means of an uunet!sci34hub!eng3!felton | instrument, do not allow yourself to complicate it | -- Leonardo da Vinci Disclaimer: Even if I had opinions, who would want them???
rlr@bbt.UUCP (rader) (10/03/90)
gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (George Wang) writes: >I'm having a problem with my new Zeos 386-20DX laptop... > >It comes with the PHEONIX 386 BIOS PLUS V 1.10 22 >revision... It now has ONE MEG of RAM installed... The problem >I'm having with the Pheonix 386 BIOS is that it REFUSES >TO LET ME USE THE 384K ABOVE 640K AS EXTENDED OR EXPANDED MEMORY!! > >It says that the 384K IS *RESERVED* and I can't get the BIOS to >free it up... > >Thanks >George Isn't this a common problem, regardless of your BIOS? That 384K between 640K and 1M is unusable as EMS on lots of AT clones that I've seen (not that I've seen very many, though). Peripheral devices use those memory addresses for their own purposes (since no one would need to break the magic DOS 640K barrier! ;). Maybe you have a card in your laptop that's assuming control over these addresses. Since your BIOS is marking it as reserved, it might be a proprietary Zeos peripheral. Anyone else have any guesses? -- ron rader, jr rlr%bbt@rti.rti.org = Opinions are my own and do not | | i gotta six- rlr%bbt$rti.rti.org@CUNYVM = necessarily reflect those of | | pack, & nothin' to do ...!mcnc!rti!bbt!rlr = BroadBand Tech. (SO THERE!) *** Punk ain't no religious cult, punk means thinking for yourself - DKs ***
jc58+@andrew.cmu.edu (Johnny J. Chin) (10/03/90)
80386 BIOS have a feature called "shadow ram".
On some BIOSes, you can disable the "shadow ram" and free up the memory
space between 640k and 1Mb. Some BIOSes will still reserve this space
even if you disabled the "shadow ram". But, by disabling the "shadow ram",
you will cause the computer to operate slower due the the "far" reference
for ever BIOS interrupt call.
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Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are STRICTLY my own, and not CMU's.atk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Alan T. Krantz) (10/04/90)
In article <Ub2GZmy00WB9AUz69i@andrew.cmu.edu> jc58+@andrew.cmu.edu (Johnny J. Chin) writes: >80386 BIOS have a feature called "shadow ram". > >On some BIOSes, you can disable the "shadow ram" and free up the memory >space between 640k and 1Mb. Some BIOSes will still reserve this space >even if you disabled the "shadow ram". But, by disabling the "shadow ram", >you will cause the computer to operate slower due the the "far" reference >for ever BIOS interrupt call. > > I don't believe this is correct. The addresses (as far as the program is concerened) is the same if the bios is executed from RAM or ROM. The differences is that the ROM has a much slower access time hence wait states are probably inserted when code is executed from ROM. Actually, I'm not too sure how this is done - I've wired up a 68xxx before and it wasn't too difficult to dynamicly set the number of wait states - but I'm not sure how it's done on the intel chips - but in any event it has nothing to do with "far" references.... ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Mail: 1830 22nd street Email: atk@boulder.colorado.edu| | Apt 16 Vmail: Home: (303) 939-8256 | | Boulder, Co 80302 Office: (303) 492-8115 | ------------------------------------------------------------------