Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?'
Saturday, October 19, 2002 at 3:59 am
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Jim Bilow
(1 messages posted)
I have a response to Do
I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?:
I disagree. I am a PC tech of 24 years standing, and continually add three lines
to the config.sys. They are:
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH, UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM
There are several ways to enter these lines. In Windows 98, use Start\Run\MS-CONFIG
or Start\Run\SYSEDIT. In Windows 95 or 98, you can enter them in DOS.
What they do is allow Windows and the DOS Shell to access the upper memory blocks
(UMB's) during startup, thus freeing up more lower (conventional) memory. The practical
upshot is that machines running with 475 - 590 kb's of free conventional memory after
loading Windows will have more (generally 20 - 30 kb's) conventional memory free
after Windows loads. The "benchmark" amount is 580 kb. If you are have less than
580 kb's free after loading Windows, programs will perform illegal operations (especially
the memory intensive ones like MS Office, Autocad, games, etc.).
You can check this number in Windows 95 or Windows 98 by going to an MS-DOS prompt
whilst in Windows. Type mem/c/p then press enter once. It will give you a table
listing all "Modules using memory beelow 1 MB".
Look just above "Memory Summary:" at the "Free" line. The aggregate (total) for
the Conventional column (3rd and 4th numbers to the right of "Free") is the important
one here. Typically, after entering my three favorite lines of code in the config.sys,
we see a number between 602 and 612 KB. To end, press enter again, then type exit
and press enter.
This legacy issue stems from two things.
1st generation AT's from the early nineteen-eightys used up to but not above 640
KB RAM. That basic configuration still haunts us today. A PC with 4 MB, 256 MB
or 2.5 GB of RAM and any amount in between is still restricted to a basic premise.
Software still launches in the first 640 KB. If the software needs 600 KB to launch,
and you only have 580 KB (or, God forbid, 520KB) free after Windows loads, you will
get an illegal opration error as sure as the sun's going to come up tomorrow. I
have seen other anomolies which can also be fixed with my favourite three lines.
So far, this is the only work around I have found.
If anyone knows more about this issue, or has more insight, please let me know.
Nobody has re-invented that wheel yet, even though Microsoft et al would like to
ignore and forget about it.
As an additional note, if you have a device driver for your CD-ROM loading in the
config.sys but not the autoexec.bat, you can almost always REM the one in the config.sys
and have the CD-ROM still work in Windows. I say "almost always" because I have
seen CD-ROM's which needed one or both drivers loaded to work in Windows.
Not loading the CD-ROM in the config.sys by typing REM and a space at the beginning
of the line will free up a lot of conventional memory below 640 KB.
|
Responses to this message:
|
|
