xaandrews@levels.sait.edu.au (02/15/91)
Gudday,
Anybody come across the problem of only having 639K available to DOS?
The DOS MEM command reports only 654 366 bytes available instead of 655 360.
My machine is an IBM AT compatible '386 with 640K conventional
memory (supposedly) and 2048K extended. It has a Phoenix 80386 ROM BIOS PLUS,
Version 1.10 03. It runs MS-DOS 4.01 operating system.
Any info would be appreciated.
David Hichens.
==============ANS1@psuvm.psu.edu (02/16/91)
I have a 33Mc MB with AMI Bios. One of the options under eXtended CMOS setup lets me set a "scratch RAM" option. The manual says the following: "Scratch RAM Option lets you choose from (1) saving the user definable drive type 47, or (2) use the stack area in the BIOS to support programs like OS/2 ...." Chosing option 2 reduces available base memory by 1Kb. Option 1 uses 100 bytes of the BIOS stack area (no reduction in base memory). Might it be that Phoenix implements 'option 2' to support OS/2 by default? Hope this puts you on the right track. Arthur Sybrandy
james@bigtex.cactus.org (James Van Artsdalen) (02/20/91)
In <15893.27bbb43e@levels.sait.edu.au>, xaandrews@levels.sait.edu.au wrote: > Anybody come across the problem of only having 639K available to > DOS? The DOS MEM command reports only 654 366 bytes available instead > of 655 360. Do you have a PS/2 compatible mouse? 1k of RAM is usually reserved for mouse tracking in designs that use a PS/2 compatible mouse. That leaves 639k for DOS. Some systems put DPBs for user programmable drive types in that 1k too (where you specified the drive geometry). PS. Be very careful of QEMM or anything claims to give more than 640k of RAM in any system that has that 1k area reserved. I am not yet convinced QEMM will avoid disaster. -- James R. Van Artsdalen james@bigtex.cactus.org "Live Free or Die" Dell Computer Co 9505 Arboretum Blvd Austin TX 78759 512-338-8789