Memory Tips for Conventional and Upper Memory 1. First and most important, save copy of your Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files to a floppy disk. You will need these to start your system if your attempts lock up your system. 2. TSRs and Device drivers. Run the DOS command at the DOS prompt MEM/C|MORE this will give you a screen showing the usage of conventional and upper memory and the space assigned to each TSR and Device driver. If the TSR or Device driver is in conventional memory you objective is to move it to upper memory. If your attempt is successful, you will have more conventional memory for program use. 3. Consult your DOS Manual to see if your Device drivers and TSRs can be run in upper memory. Also consult your manuals supplied with mouse, soundcards etc.. 4. DOs. If your system has a CD-Rom, note the TSRs and Device drivers that are associated with these in your Config.sys and Autoexex.bat files. Some of these TSRs and Device drivers are not needed, example Soundblaster Diagnostics. Use the Editor and edit your config.sys and Autoexec.bat files. Put a REM statement infront of each line that maybe eleminated. Example LH /L:0;1,45456 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE would be changed to read REM LH /L:0;1,45456 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE. This example eleminated my Smartdrv.exe, but it would free up memory for other uses. 4a. Use the Command Buffers=30,8 in your Config.sys file instead of a Smartdrv. exe command in your Autoexec.bat file This will free up more memory, but load files a bit slower. 4b. Run DOS Command at the Dos prompt> MEMMAKER this will help to free up conventional memory. Memmaker is a DOS6 or hgher version of DOS. If you have DOS 5.00 this is not available. 4c. In your config.sys file put the command DOS=HIGH,UMB This will attempt to load DOS in upper memory. If not enough room, it will automatically be loaded in conventional memory. 4d. After each attempt, run the DOS command MEM/C|MORE at the DOS prompt>, check to see if you have freed up any more conventional memory. 4e. Install your mouse driver in upper memory by using Devicehigh or Loadhigh command. 5. DONOTS. Do not try to put HIMEM.SYS OR EMM386.EXE in upper memory. 5b. Do not try to chamge your Config.sys or Autoexec.bat files without saving them to a floppy disk first!!!!!!. 5c. do not get discouraged because your attempt failed, if it did fail consult you Manuals and try again. Most attempts are caused by typing errors or mispellings. Doublecheck your commands for correct spelling 5d. Do not tamper with any dblspace commands. These are very important to systems users that are using dblspace file compression. If you corrupt these files, your system will go west and I DO MEAN W-E-S-T, to the point that recovery is impossible. 6. If you are succesful, you should end up with at least 610 or 612k of free conventional memory. If this is not enough free memory to run a program or file, then in my opinion, do not buy anymore of this companys or authors programs!!!!! If this file has helped you, then contact me at the best Bulletin Board in the Country, Software Creations 508 368 7139 (modem line) Dean E. Percival or through Compuserve 74073,1554 Dean E. Percival Be on the lookout for more helpful tips under the memhelp.txt updates. Any suggestions would be appreciated so we can help stomp out aftermarket costs of costly programs that system owners do not really need. ---------- Here are copies of my CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, MI printout, and MEM /C printout. Using this configuration, I got 616.0K (That's 630,784 bytes folks) of usable memory under 640K. This is using the MS DOS 5.0/HIMEM.SYS/EMM386.EXE combination. I am using a Gateway 2000 386/33C with 4megs of RAM and a 120MB IDE hard drive. One thing to do to get more memory is to keep the environment small. Anything that is shown when you type SET at the prompt is in the environemt. Make directory names that are put in the path short(the longer the path, the more memory that is used). Keep your SET= statements to a minimum. Also keep them simple. Set LASTDRIVE to the lowest drive letter needed. I you have one HD partition, and don't plan on using a ramdrive place LASTDRIVE=C into you CONFIG.SYS. Other things to do in the CONFIG.SYS is to place FCBS=1 and STACKS=0,0 on separate lines. Keep the number of files in the CONFIG.SYS down to the smallest that you need. There is also a PC Magazine utility called UMBFILES.COM that will place your files into the UMB. If you use this utility, the minimum files in the CONFIG.SYS must be 8, as this is the minimum allowable by MS-DOS, and the rest will be loaded high. ******************************************************************************* CONFIG.SYS BREAK=ON DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS DOS=HIGH,UMB STACKS=0,0 FCBS=1 FILES=30 BUFFERS=2 LASTDRIVE=C ******************************************************************************* AUTOEXEC.BAT @ECHO OFF PROMPT $P) PATH=C:\;C:\WINDOWS;C:\NDW;C:\PCTOOLS;C:\DOS;C:\NU;C:\QEMM;C:\UTILS;C:\PKZ;C:\A RJ;C:\VPC SET TEMP=C:\TMP EP /ON IMAGE C:\STAR\UTIL\VMODE MONITOR C:\UTILS\SPEEDER + LH C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.COM LH C:\DOS\DOSKEY /HISTORY LH C:\WINDOWS\AD-DOS.COM LH C:\PCTOOLS\PC-CACHE/SIZEXT=512/WRITE=ON/V1/QUIET WIN : LH C:\PCTOOLS\SWAPSH /N PCSHELL/R ******************************************************************************* MI.COM (or MI/A) Memory Info V7.1 (c)1991 Central Point Software, Inc. Total bytes owned Addr. Low area High area Program or device driver ----- -------- --------- -------------------------- 0255h 1,184 .. Device=HIMEM Attr=A000h Name=XMSXXXX0 02A0h 8,400 .. Device=EMM386 Attr=C000h Name=$MMXXXX0 054Ah 2,624 .. COMMAND 0600h 630,768 .. ---- Begin High (Upper) Memory ---- C802h .. 8,288 EP CA14h .. 16,752 MOUSE CE2Ch .. 4,128 DOSKEY /HISTORY CF2Fh .. 3,904 AD-DOS D030h .. 15,664 PC-CACHE C:\PCTOOLS\PC-CACHE.COM/SIZEXT=512/WRITE= D3F9h .. 9,232 SWAPSH C:\PCTOOLS\SWAPSH.COM /N 655,360 bytes (640k) total DOS 5.00 conventional memory. 630,768 bytes (616k) largest executable program. 40,176 bytes if loaded high. 0 bytes Extended (AT/286/386) memory, reported by BIOS. 2,283k bytes free, reported by XMS driver version 2.0 (2.77). HMA in use. ******************************************************************************* MEM/C |MORE Conventional Memory : Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex ------------- --------------------- ------------- MSDOS 11952 ( 11.7K) 2EB0 HIMEM 1184 ( 1.2K) 4A0 EMM386 8400 ( 8.2K) 20D0 COMMAND 2624 ( 2.6K) A40 FREE 64 ( 0.1K) 40 FREE 630944 (616.2K) 9A0A0 Total FREE : 631008 (616.2K) Upper Memory : Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex ------------- --------------------- ------------- SYSTEM 163840 (160.0K) 28000 EP 8288 ( 8.1K) 2060 SWAPSH 9232 ( 9.0K) 2410 MOUSE 16752 ( 16.4K) 4170 DOSKEY 4128 ( 4.0K) 1020 AD-DOS 3904 ( 3.8K) F40 PC-CACHE 15664 ( 15.3K) 3D30 FREE 40176 ( 39.2K) 9CF0 Total FREE : 40176 ( 39.2K) Total bytes available to programs (Conventional+Upper) : 671184 (655.5K) Largest executable program size : 630768 (616.0K) Largest available upper memory block : 40176 ( 39.2K) 3145728 bytes total contiguous extended memory 0 bytes available contiguous extended memory 2337792 bytes available XMS memory MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area ******************************************************************************* If you have any questions, comments, or helpful memory hint, please write me. Sean Martin 6044 Camino Alegre El Paso, TX 79912 If you would like a reply, please send a self addressed stamped envelope. This would greatly help as I am just a poor college student. Texas A&M University Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 1995! WHOOP