gus@plains.NoDak.edu (jim gustafson) (06/20/91)
I just bought DV386 (2.32) and QEMM386 (5.12) thinking I could enhance my development environment... multitask Kermit in a window, run several compiler windows, etc. Well, call me a wimp if you like, but I found both products to be the most incredibly frustrating software I've ever worked with. I installed QEMM386 on a 4MB 25Mhz 386 Zeos box (MS-DOS 4.01) using a minimal vanilla configuration. After more than 4 hours (and lots of reading and fiddling) I still can't get the memory manager to function correctly! You know the drill... try this, try that... boot, boot, boot. So, I'm curious about how long it takes to get this software working? (never mind about fancy customizations... Optimize freezes my box) If I hear horor stories of more than 4 hours, I might continue... otherwise I'll probably junk this effort and end up telling others how much time and energy they can expect to spend with DV and QEMM. Tired and grumpy, -- Jim. -- Jim Gustafson <>< UUCP: uunet!plains!gus North Dakota State University Bitnet: gus@plains Fargo, North Dakota 58105 Internet: gus@plains.nodak.edu
ralphs@halcyon.ogi.edu (06/20/91)
gus@plains.NoDak.edu (jim gustafson) writes: > After more than 4 hours (and lots of reading and fiddling) I still can't get > the memory manager to function correctly! You know the drill... try this, > try that... boot, boot, boot. Without knowing what you've tried and what's happening with various setups, it's hard to give precise information. Try device=qemm386.sys and forget the options. What happens? If all goes well, add /RAM to the device line and see what gives. Still good? Then forget anything else, and switch into your DV directory and type XDV. But wait! Are you installing from the distribution disks? Those files are compressed and you need to run the installation procedure for qemm386. How long did it take me to get up and running? 15 minutes or so. Fine tuning? About six months, and still working at it, but much less now than before.
s907396@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Miramar [Eugene Mok]) (06/20/91)
gus@plains.NoDak.edu (jim gustafson) writes: >I just bought DV386 (2.32) and QEMM386 (5.12) thinking I could enhance my >development environment... multitask Kermit in a window, run several compiler >windows, etc. Very good choice! DV would do just that. >Well, call me a wimp if you like, but I found both products to be the most >incredibly frustrating software I've ever worked with. I installed QEMM386 Wimp? :-) >So, I'm curious about how long it takes to get this software working? >(never mind about fancy customizations... Optimize freezes my box) Well it took me about half an hour to install DV and QEMM, run optimize and fiddle around with my config.sys to my liking. That's not the last word though since it's an ongoing process to optimize my system with QEMM and DV. >otherwise I'll probably junk this effort and end up telling others how much >time and energy they can expect to spend with DV and QEMM. Well for a simple setup, DV and QEMM shouldn't take more than an hour to get going. Don't know why Optimize hung your PC, it worked fine on mine. Perhaps if you post more details about your setup, some of us might be able to help. -- -----/ _ _ \--------------------------------------------------------------- | o o | Eugene Mok s907396@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Melbourne OZ) \ ^ / ------\ o /----------------------------------------------------------------
bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) (06/21/91)
| gus@plains.NoDak.edu (jim gustafson) writes: | >So, I'm curious about how long it takes to get this software working? | >(never mind about fancy customizations... Optimize freezes my box) Optimize would freeze my machine, by attempting to LOADHI the diskcache I am using (Norton's ncache-f). Fortunately it would freeze immediately after a suggestive message, so I caught on to this problem. Trying this manually led to the same thing --- ncache just wouldn't work in high memory. But wait... Horror story? How about... I can now load ncache high. I don't know what changed, I don't know what if anything I did, I don't know why it didn't work before. I live in dread of waking up one day to find that it has stopped working again :( Also --- it probably took me 3-4 weeks of almost random fussing before I hit on a combination of parameters (and usage habits) that doesn't cause frequent Exception 13 errors or frozen keyboards. Now that I'm there, I'm quite happy; but Yow! what a headache getting there.
nm1@ra.MsState.Edu (Natalie Maynor) (06/21/91)
ralphs@halcyon.ogi.edu writes: >else, and switch into your DV directory and type XDV. But wait! Are >you installing from the distribution disks? Those files are compressed >and you need to run the installation procedure for qemm386. I had been wondering about the original "horror stories" message. The reply quoted above sounds reasonable to me. Being only borderline computer-literate, I let the install disk do the work for me. I just answered its simple questions, watched my computer reboot a couple of times, and voila -- I've been a happy user of DV ever since. The only time I've looked at the manual since the day I installed DV was when I decided to add a script to automatically load BIGDOS, Wordperfect 5.1, and Procomm Plus. No problem. I load DV from my autoexec.bat and have those three applications running all the time. When I get up in the morning, I turn on my computer and go into the kitchen for coffee. I return to the computer to find three neat boxes sitting on the screen. -- --Natalie (nm1@ra.msstate.edu)
gus@plains.NoDak.edu (jim gustafson) (06/21/91)
In article <1991Jun20.175049.7921@news.cs.indiana.edu> bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) writes: > > Optimize would freeze my machine, by attempting to LOADHI the diskcache > I am using (Norton's ncache-f). Fortunately it would freeze immediately > after a suggestive message, so I caught on to this problem. Trying this > manually led to the same thing --- ncache just wouldn't work in high > memory. But wait... Horror story? How about... I can now load ncache > high. I don't know what changed, I don't know what if anything I did, I > don't know why it didn't work before. I live in dread of waking up one > day to find that it has stopped working again :( > > Also --- it probably took me 3-4 weeks of almost random fussing before I > hit on a combination of parameters (and usage habits) that doesn't cause > frequent Exception 13 errors or frozen keyboards. Now that I'm there, > I'm quite happy; but Yow! what a headache getting there. Thanks for sharing your stress factor. I have good news to report... after several kind net people sent me horrific stories to encouragement me in my quest for DV bliss, I hacked and fiddled a bit more, and voila`, QEMM and DV-386 are now actually functional (sort of :). For those whose lives have been blessed by an uneventful A:INSTALL, etc., let me just remark that my problems disappeared once I hit on the following strategy: exclude ALL memory above 640, then incrementally try to add back small chunks. device=c:\qemm\qemm386 x=a000-ffff By following this approach and using a vanilla configuration, I discovered that as long as I forced the page frame into a000-affff and didn't try to loadhi, I could get DV up and running. I think one key ingredient to success was the "mutter factor". Unless a sufficient degree of fussing, muttering, and general dispepsia is detected by an undocumented "feature" of QEMM and DV, these programs just won't behave themselves, period. Now that my boat floats, I expect that I can look forward to paying my dues for several weeks to come as I try to bring up a multi-megabyte disk cache, and discover the true meaning of Exception #13 (only /one/ so far, but what would you expect from a loadhi weenie?). Anyway, a generous "thank you" to those who poked their fingers into the holes of my leaking dingie before I lost my otherwise semi-displaced FRAME of mind. -- Jim. -- Jim Gustafson <>< UUCP: uunet!plains!gus North Dakota State University Bitnet: gus@plains Fargo, North Dakota 58105 Internet: gus@plains.nodak.edu
noesis@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (60276000) (06/21/91)
here's mine though it's not nearly as bad as what i've heard: after installing dv & qemm on a '486 with an RLL as a primary and a SCSI as a secondary, the machine would boot fine but on first access to the SCSI it would hang for about 30 seconds, then no problems. found i had to exclude the SCSI controller from mappable as install didn't find it. to whoever has the pageframe at a000-afff: what are you to do if you get a graphics card? just curious one note: i cannot get WordStar 5.0 to work correctly. it will usually start, but after about a page it will completly hang & i must RESET to continue. the machine itself doesn't hang because the doc will auto-save every 430 seconds. VERY annoying. i've set protection to 3 and keyboard to 15 without success. kyle