mary@wam.umd.edu (Mary Louise Cassidy) (06/26/91)
I thought I'd keep everyone up to date on the status of my friend's problem and dos 5.0 in general (as asked). This is what I've figured out (for those that don't know like I did). DOS can place itself into the High Memory Area which is the first 64k of Extended memory. Now, how 286 systems deal with their 1 meg of chip RAM varies widely. Some ignore the space between 640k-1meg (called Upper Mem by DOS 5.0), some use it for shadowing BIOS and video info, and some use parts as extended memory. I've heard about the last group before I think in reference to some special chip set, called something like the NEAT set by C&T. Anyway, I got suggestions on setting a machine level on my friend's computer, no go. He has a NEC PowerMate 286 Plus which uses the UMA for shadowing and stuff (but it can be disabled). He plans to call his dealer tomorrow and ask around to see if there is any way for 5.0 to work on his system. Now I don't know how one would be able to tell if their 286 would do it right.....does anyone? Is there a way I can 'test' my system besides buying DOS and maybe end up returning it?