ash@mlacus.oz (Ash Nallawalla) (02/04/90)
In article <90012700003592@masnet.uucp>, don.roy@canremote.uucp (DON ROY) writes: > The latest version of HIMEM.SYS (2.05) is available on Compuserve and, > I'm sure, several BBS's in your area. Failing that, you may try calling I posted a comment recently to the effect that HIMEM.SYS 2.06 was released in February 1989 but that recently-shipped MS software still came with older versions. I got only one reply to the effect that not everyone needs 2.06. As a few have asked about HIMEM.SYS lately, perhaps Microsoft could reply directly and authoritatively. (the 2.06 archive contains a good DOC file about it) -- ============================================================================= Ash Nallawalla Tel: +61 3 823-1959 Fax: +61 3 820-1434 ZL4LM/VK3CIT Postal: P.O. Box 539, Werribee VIC 3030, Australia.
oppenhei@umd5.umd.edu (Richard Oppenheimer) (02/08/90)
In article <-286349995@hpcupt1.HP.COM> swh@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Steve Harrold) writes: >Re: Latest version of HIMEM.SYS > >>>> The latest version of HIMEM.SYS (2.05) is available on Compuserve and, > ^^^^ >>>> I'm sure, several BBS's in your area. Failing that, you may try calling >>>> Microsoft directly. > >I have HIMEM.SYS version 2.06, dated 3/21/89 If all these great updated versions of himem.sys have been out for almost a year now, why has Microsoft chosen to include version 2.04 of HIMEM.SYS in the just released Word for Windows package. I suspect these newer versions are not from MS. Any statement from the folks at MS? Richard
oppenhei@umd5.umd.edu (Richard Oppenheimer) (02/13/90)
I thought I posted this previously, but I didn't see it. My question is in response to much talk of new versions of HIMEM.SYS. I have seen people write about version 2.05 and 2.06. In fact Above Disk, a EMM emulator, wants version 2.05 or higher. My quandry is Microsoft is still sending out version 2.04. As a matter of fact I recently received my upgrade to Word for Windows and it still had version 2.04, with a little twist though. It was dated 12/??/89, as opposed to my previous 2.04 which had a date of 05/??/88 Anyone got any ideas. Richard Oppenheimer Computer Science Center University of Maryland oppenhei@umd5.umd.edu
gobran@ecs.umass.edu (02/21/90)
In article <6113@umd5.umd.edu>, oppenhei@umd5.umd.edu (Richard Oppenheimer) writes: > I thought I posted this previously, but I didn't see it. My question > is in response to much talk of new versions of HIMEM.SYS. I have seen > people write about version 2.05 and 2.06. In fact Above Disk, a EMM > emulator, wants version 2.05 or higher. My quandry is Microsoft is still > sending out version 2.04. As a matter of fact I recently received my upgrade > to Word for Windows and it still had version 2.04, with a little twist though. > It was dated 12/??/89, as opposed to my previous 2.04 which had a date of > 05/??/88 > > Anyone got any ideas. You can get HIMEM206.SYS via anonymous FTP from Simtel20 in the directory PD1:<MSDOS.SYSUTL> It is described as Himem.sys - REVISED because Microsoft saw fit to change it at least once without incrementing the version number for some unknown reason. (Simtel20 is: wsmr-simtel20.army.mil 26.2.0.74, there are also some Windows related files there in PD1:<msdos.mswindows>) Dave Gobran UMass/Amherst gobran@umaecs or gobran@ecs.umass.edu
mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) (07/27/90)
I sort of like Windows 3.0, but it has one terribly irritating flaw - fatal, in fact: it won't run in extended 386 mode, the only useful way to run it, without the himem.sys that comes with it. With himem.sys installed, none of my other 386 programs will run. FLAME ON!!!!! WHY, OH WHY, Microsoft, didn't you put the himem.sys functionality inside Windows itself, so that other programs can be run without rebooting?? It is NOT NICE to make programs that REQUIRE (and Windows 3.0 DOES require it to be at all useful) that require special .sys files. IS there a way around this? Somebody surely could make a himem.sys program that can be turned off. Qemm for example, can be turned off. OR make one that can be removed? Is anyone at Microsoft listening?????????????? Doug McDonald
mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) (07/29/90)
In article <1990Jul27.154843.21611@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> I wrote: >I sort of like Windows 3.0, but it has one terribly irritating flaw - >fatal, in fact: it won't run in extended 386 mode, the only useful way >to run it, without the himem.sys that comes with it. With himem.sys >installed, none of my other 386 programs will run. > > >IS there a way around this? Somebody surely could make a himem.sys program >that can be turned off. Qemm for example, can be turned off. OR >make one that can be removed? > > >Is anyone at Microsoft listening?????????????? > I discovered a new piece of info: If I include himem.sys (the win 3.0 one) in my config.sys file but not smartdrive, then I CAN run my 386 programs (with the Phar Lap extender) happily all day - UNTIL I run Windows 3.0 itself. After that, the 386 programs won't run until I reboot. Could it be that himem.sys is not completely releasing memory when it is no longer used? Doug McDonald
ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Timothy Takahashi) (07/29/90)
In article <1990Jul28.212853.8561@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes: >IS there a way around this? Somebody surely could make a himem.sys program >that can be turned off. Qemm for example, can be turned off. OR > >I discovered a new piece of info: If I include himem.sys (the win 3.0 one) >in my config.sys file but not smartdrive, then I CAN run my 386 programs >(with the Phar Lap extender) happily all day - UNTIL I run Windows 3.0 >itself. After that, the 386 programs won't run until I reboot. Could >it be that himem.sys is not completely releasing memory when it is no >longer used? Definately, somethings up here. Before I run Windows 3.0, the Dos 4.0 MEM command reports extended memory available. After I run Windows 3.0, squat. My setup : 386sx clone (Phoenix BIOS, C&T NEAT, MFM Hard Drive), IBM PCDOS 4.0 Windows 3.0 (bought the day it was released) tim
mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) (07/29/90)
In article <8661@ur-cc.UUCP> ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Timothy Takahashi) writes: >In article <1990Jul28.212853.8561@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes: >> >>I discovered a new piece of info: If I include himem.sys (the win 3.0 one) >>in my config.sys file but not smartdrive, then I CAN run my 386 programs >>(with the Phar Lap extender) happily all day - UNTIL I run Windows 3.0 >>itself. After that, the 386 programs won't run until I reboot. Could >>it be that himem.sys is not completely releasing memory when it is no >>longer used? > >Definately, somethings up here. Before I run Windows 3.0, the Dos 4.0 MEM >command reports extended memory available. After I run Windows 3.0, squat. > >My setup : 386sx clone (Phoenix BIOS, C&T NEAT, MFM Hard Drive), IBM PCDOS 4.0 > Windows 3.0 (bought the day it was released) > Ah ---- I tried it on a gen-u-ine IBM PS/2 Model 80. 100% true blue. Tried IBM DOS 3.3 and IBM DOS 4.01. Same problem. Doug McDonald
ghenniga@nmsu.edu (Gary Hennigan) (07/29/90)
Well here's my two cents! I don't know exactly how himem.sys works but I believe it's intended function is a full memory manager and that Microsoft decided that as such it has full control over memory. This means that it ties up all the memory and allocates portions of it to applications as they request or have need of it. This works fine in windows where, through a PIF, you can tell windows how much extended memory to give an application on startup, at least in 386e mode. What I'm not sure of is what this means if you chose to exit windows and startup applications straight from DOS. Does himem.sys still portion out the memory or does it only function in the Windows environment? Maybe some MS person reading this could answer? Anyway that's the extent of my knowledge, at least as it pertains to MSW, well maybe most other things too! -- Gary Hennigan +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + e-mail: ghenniga@NMSU.Edu, henninsf@maxwel.NMSU.Edu + + Department of Electrical Engineering, Grad Student + + Physical Science Laboratory (ASS)istant systems programmer + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
rommel@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de (Kai-Uwe Rommel) (07/30/90)
In article <8661@ur-cc.UUCP> ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Timothy Takahashi) writes: >In article <1990Jul28.212853.8561@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes: >>I discovered a new piece of info: If I include himem.sys (the win 3.0 one) >>in my config.sys file but not smartdrive, then I CAN run my 386 programs >>(with the Phar Lap extender) happily all day - UNTIL I run Windows 3.0 >>itself. After that, the 386 programs won't run until I reboot. Could >Definately, somethings up here. Before I run Windows 3.0, the Dos 4.0 MEM >command reports extended memory available. After I run Windows 3.0, squat. Thats for compatibility reasons. Before any program or other driver (like smartdrv) accesses extended memory via himem.sys, the himem.sys driver makes itself transparent allowing older programs to access the extended memory the old way. After any program uses himem.sys (like smartdrv or Windows 3.0 or even ramdrive), ALL extended memory can only be accessed via himem.sys. This is not a bug. Before you flame on himem.sys - What would you say, if an application wants to bypass the EMS driver to access an Above Board? The problem is, that the XMS specification was created very late and several programs accessing extended memory directly were already on the market. Kai Uwe Rommel -- /* Kai Uwe Rommel * Munich * rommel@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de */
mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) (07/30/90)
In article <3652@tuminfo1.lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de> rommel@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de (Kai-Uwe Rommel) writes: >In article <8661@ur-cc.UUCP> ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Timothy Takahashi) writes: >>In article <1990Jul28.212853.8561@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes: > >>>I discovered a new piece of info: If I include himem.sys (the win 3.0 one) >>>in my config.sys file but not smartdrive, then I CAN run my 386 programs >>>(with the Phar Lap extender) happily all day - UNTIL I run Windows 3.0 >>>itself. After that, the 386 programs won't run until I reboot. Could > >>Definately, somethings up here. Before I run Windows 3.0, the Dos 4.0 MEM >>command reports extended memory available. After I run Windows 3.0, squat. > >Thats for compatibility reasons. Before any program or other driver >(like smartdrv) accesses extended memory via himem.sys, the himem.sys >driver makes itself transparent allowing older programs to access the >extended memory the old way. > >After any program uses himem.sys (like smartdrv or Windows 3.0 or even >ramdrive), ALL extended memory can only be accessed via himem.sys. >This is not a bug. > FLAME ON! No, that in itself is not a bug, agreed. BUT what is a bug is that himem.sys supplied with Win 3.0 doesn't work - I have not found a single program - other than the ones supplied with Windows 3.0 - that will get extended memory from it. There are STANDARD methods for supporting extended memory. Himem.sys should support those methods. If itr wants to ADD extra methods, that is fine. But unless it continues supporting the standard methods - THAT IS A BUG!!! In any case, I have found a fix. Right at the start of himem.sys, there is code that traps the bios call to get the amount of extended memory and arbitrarily sets it to zero. So what you have to do is simply bypass that test by changing the third byte after the one pointed at by the int 15h interrupt from 88h to 0 - this simply allows himem to pass through the call to the previous driver, which appears to have the correct answer. This works for me. I am using the Win 2.11 version of Smartdrive rather than the Win 3.0 one. This allows my 386 programs using the Phar Lap runtime to work. The way the new himem.sys works is very very antisocial. Doug McDonald
chrisb@escargot.UUCP (Chris Bradley) (08/03/90)
In article <1990Jul27.154843.21611@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes: >I sort of like Windows 3.0, but it has one terribly irritating flaw - >fatal, in fact: it won't run in extended 386 mode, the only useful way >to run it, without the himem.sys that comes with it. With himem.sys >installed, none of my other 386 programs will run. What????!? I have Himem.sys installed on my Intel 386/25 box and I can run all of my 386 based software. By 386 "extended" I assume that you mean 386 "enhanced"?? It sounds as if you're confusing EMM386 and HIMEM.SYS - HIMEM.SYS Is a protected mode program only. >FLAME ON!!!!! > >WHY, OH WHY, Microsoft, didn't you put the himem.sys functionality >inside Windows itself, so that other programs can be run without rebooting?? Obviously you have no idea what HIMEM.SYS does. It is an attempt to standardize a way of managing extended memory. It has MUCH more functionality that the brain-dead BIOS routines. >IS there a way around this? Somebody surely could make a himem.sys program >that can be turned off. Qemm for example, can be turned off. OR >make one that can be removed? Again, I think you're talking about EMM386. HIMEM Takes away all extended memory from the BIOS and manages it internally. >Is anyone at Microsoft listening?????????????? FLAME ON!!!!! Attitudes like this really piss me off. Basically it's an "I don't have my way so I'm going to bitch until I do" attitude that generally makes me wish people like this weren't my customers. Hey bud, give Microsoft a *BREAK*. Windows 3.0 is *HUGE*, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to give you every driver you need, even to make it run on a clone-a-tronic-shit blender-3 machine with a MegaVGA Super Duper Video adapter and your Taiwaneese hard disk controller. HIMEM Is an attempt to manage extended memory, and it proves to be quite logical and useful. Before you bitch and complain about other products, make sure you understand them fully first. FLAME OFF!!!! -->Chris UUCP: ..tektronix!tessi!escargot!chrisb "I didn't like the Mercury Sable, So I bought a Ford Taurus instead!"
mms00786@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Milan Mahendra Shah) (08/04/90)
Doug McDonald writes about a bug in HIMEM.SYS which many seem to think is not. However, I think I have uncovered yet another annoying feature of HIMEM.SYS. I have HIMEM.SYS installed, DOS 4.01 (same with DOS 3.3), and Carbon Copy 5.0. I also have a modem installed on COM 4 (though it doesn't seem to matter what COM port I use). When I start up CCPlus, it complains that com port did not respond to IRQ test and drops back to the C prompt. If I deinstall HIMEM.SYS, everything works like a charm. I don't believe that CCPLUS uses extended memory at all, so this interaction definitely *seems* like a bug. Anyone know what could be happening? Milan. .
bg11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Brian E. Gallew) (08/06/90)
Speaking of problems/caveats of himem.sys, does anyone out there know of
a program that can use the high memory that can supposedly be provided
by it? I really like QEMM386 because I can load all of my drivers in
high memory, but the loadhi that comes with QEMM deosn't like himem.sys.
Is there a fix or am I still looking for pie-in-the-sky?
-Brian
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It goes off... -more-pilger@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Eric Pilger) (08/29/90)
"the loadhi that comes with QEMM doesn't like himem.sys" That is because qemm.sys already supplies XMS. himem.sys is not needed, and is simply ignored (except for the nmessage you see.) Leave out himem.sys and you'll get just what you want. Bear in mind that QEMM5.0 only supports Windows 3.0 Real Mode. QEMM 5.1 supports Real and Standard Mode. Eric Pilger NASA Infrared Telescope Facility
eger@nu.cs.fsu.edu (Robert Eger) (05/10/91)
Sorry if this is a frequently asked or stupid/obvious question, but what exactly does HIMEM.SYS do, and is it necessary? I am running Windows on a 386SX with 2MB RAM. I am asking because I am trying to free up memory, and if HIMEM.SYS is not really needed, then I am taking it out of my CONFIG.SYS. Thanks in advance, Robert Eger eger@nu.cs.fsu.edu
PDS2@psuvm.psu.edu (Paul D. Shan) (05/10/91)
In article <1991May9.203448.5597@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>, eger@nu.cs.fsu.edu (Robert Eger) says: > >Sorry if this is a frequently asked or stupid/obvious question, but >what exactly does HIMEM.SYS do, and is it necessary? I am running >Windows on a 386SX with 2MB RAM. I am asking because I am trying to >free up memory, and if HIMEM.SYS is not really needed, then I am >taking it out of my CONFIG.SYS. > HIMEM.SYS is simply an extended memory manager. That's it. Windows need access to extended memory to have more room to run. In your case, with a 386SX, if you have 1024K of free extended RAM, you can run in Enhanced mode. So yes, you DO need HIMEM.SYS (or another extended memory manager). QEMM is an extended memory manager that allows you to install some drivers in the upper memory block (area from 640k to 1 Meg). You might look into one of these if you're trying to free up some conventional RAM. Paul D. Shan Microcomputer and Personal Workstation Support Center for Academic Computing 12 Willard Building University Park, PA 16802 (814) 863-4356 PDS2@PSUVM.psu.edu
kensy@microsoft.UUCP (Ken SYKES) (05/14/91)
In article <1991May9.203448.5597@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> eger@nu.cs.fsu.edu writes: >Sorry if this is a frequently asked or stupid/obvious question, but >what exactly does HIMEM.SYS do, and is it necessary? I am running >Windows on a 386SX with 2MB RAM. I am asking because I am trying to >free up memory, and if HIMEM.SYS is not really needed, then I am >taking it out of my CONFIG.SYS. HIMEM.SYS is needed if you want to run protect mode. It is the XMS manager for Windows. Without extended memory you will be stuck with real mode. Ken Sykes Disclaimer: The above opinions are solely my own.