cm@jet.uk (colin manning) (06/17/91)
Installing DOS 5 on a machine with a 1542B SCSI controller, I have a problem with EMM386.EXE. It doesnt work. System crashes as soon as you try to put something in a UMB, such as loading RAMDRIVE using devicehigh. Similar problem also seen with a 1740 EISA SCSI. I have tried mapping out various bits of high memory, but to no effect. Devices are configured at the default 1542 BIOS addresses. Any ideas ? -- - Colin Manning, cm@jet.uk - Disclaimer: Please note that the above is a personal view and should not be construed as an official comment from the JET project.
press@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM (Barry Press) (06/19/91)
In article <1991Jun17.114812.11279@jet.uk> cm@jet.uk (colin manning) writes: >Installing DOS 5 on a machine with a 1542B SCSI controller, >I have a problem with EMM386.EXE. It doesnt work. System >crashes as soon as you try to put something in a UMB, such >as loading RAMDRIVE using devicehigh. Similar problem also >seen with a 1740 EISA SCSI. It must be something in your setup. I have a 486 with a 1542B and have been running DOS 5 with the UMB's for quite some time now. I don't have the config.sys here to simply post, but (roughly) the order of loading things goes like this. The following are loaded normally (device=) adaptec.sys (moves the configuration tables) himem.sys emm386.sys aspi4dos.sys then these get loaded high (devicehigh=: smartdrv.sys ramdrive.sys etc. Be sure you use the versions provided with DOS 5 and not older ones. The adaptec.sys is very old (but small and apparently doesn't do much after it loads); the aspi4dos.sys I have is 2.1B (beta) -- See Roy Neese's offer posted in another article if you don't have it. I also have the obligatory VirtualHDIRQ=False in the [386enh] section for Windows, the net resulting setup has been extremely stable. A sequential file I/O test on 8MB files (4MB cache, so it gets defeated) and 16384 byte blocks shows in excess of 500K bytes/sec write and > 450K bytes/sec read. -- Barry Press Internet: press@venice.sedd.trw.com
dtw@acsu.buffalo.edu (daniel t wesolowski) (06/19/91)
In article <1991Jun17.114812.11279@jet.uk> cm@jet.uk (colin manning) writes: >Installing DOS 5 on a machine with a 1542B SCSI controller, >I have a problem with EMM386.EXE. It doesnt work. System >crashes as soon as you try to put something in a UMB, such >as loading RAMDRIVE using devicehigh. Similar problem also >seen with a 1740 EISA SCSI. I have the same problem. If you are using IBM Dos, there is a readme file that says that you cannot load devices high, when using a DMA controlled controller. If you are using MS-Dos I'd assume the same cannot be done. If you are using the EMM386 you have to replace the NOEMS switch to RAM. Make sure aspi4dos.sys is loaded before EMM386. Dan
marmbrus@isis.cs.du.edu (Mark Armbrust) (06/22/91)
>In article <1991Jun17.114812.11279@jet.uk> cm@jet.uk (colin manning) writes: >>Installing DOS 5 on a machine with a 1542B SCSI controller, >>I have a problem with EMM386.EXE. It doesnt work. System >>crashes as soon as you try to put something in a UMB, such >>as loading RAMDRIVE using devicehigh. Similar problem also >>seen with a 1740 EISA SCSI. When I first tried this, I had some flakey things happen, too. One time the driver managed to tell me that it needed a DMA=128 option (something similar to that, at least -- I'm not at work at the moment so this is from memory). I added this to the EMM386.SYS line and the system seems to run OK now. I didn't bother to learn what this is really doing--something about reserving some memory for a DMA buffer. --Mark
dan@wystan.bsd.uchicago.edu (06/22/91)
>Installing DOS 5 on a machine with a 1542B SCSI controller, >I have a problem with EMM386.EXE. It doesnt work. System >crashes as soon as you try to put something in a UMB, such >as loading RAMDRIVE using devicehigh. Similar problem also >seen with a 1740 EISA SCSI. The problem with DOS 5 and SCSI controllers on my box seems to be with SMARTDRV. You can't DEVICEHIGH= either SMARTDRV or the SCSI driver unless the other driver is already loaded into _conventional_ memory. If I try to load either in the UMA before the other is active low it hangs the system on reboot. I guess it makes sense since they're both buffering devices and probaly try to compete with each other for memory. The config.sys has to go in one of these two orders: 1. DEVICE=your SCSI driver DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=EMM386.EXE DEVICEHIGH=SMARTDRV.SYS or, 2. DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=EMM386.EXE DEVICE=SMARTDRV.SYS DEVICEHIGH=your SCSI driver The SCSI driver for my card (a 1540A) is smaller than SMARTDRV so I've been using the first of these two, but I have done it the other way with no problems. Unfortunately, until Adaptec issues some new drivers it looks like we're stuck in lower memory. (P.S. - If anybody does know a way to get both drivers into the UMA or if Adaptec has issued new stuff, _please_ let us know!) Good Luck, Dan Rohwer-Nutter dan@wystan.bsd.uchicago.edu Univ. of Chicago - Neurology
hargrove@asc.slb.com (Jim Hargrove) (06/24/91)
The file readme.txt has the following to say:
3.3 Problems Loading into the Upper Memory Area
-----------------------------------------------
Some computers with hard disk controllers, specifically bus
master DMA controllers, may not be able to load device drivers
or programs into the upper memory area. Try adding a
DEVICE=SMARTDRV.SYS command before any DEVICEHIGH commands in
your CONFIG.SYS file.
=================================================================
I highly recommend this little file. It had a lot of useful
information if you are having problems with DOS 5.0.
--
-- jwh