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Windows 286/2 and Memory Boards

TwiggyTwiggy
edited July 2017 in Software
My PackMate 3 is working now with it's new 121mb drive.

I just installed Windows 286 after testing 3.1 (3.1 runs, but is extremely slow). Windows 286 needs to know what kind of memory board I have to take advantage of my extended memory. However, I don't know which board I have. Is there anyway to figure this out without opening the case again, or will I have to?

Thanks.

EDIT: I just realized it's expanded memory, not extended memory.

I have 640k base, and then 384 extended memory, for a total of 1MB. So it s this option not for me anyways?

Comments

  • BigCJBigCJ
    No, not unless you want to track down and install expanded memory board(s).
  • TwiggyTwiggy
    BigCJ wrote:
    No, not unless you want to track down and install expanded memory board(s).

    Thanks,


    so that's a problem solved by realising it's not a problem to begin with.

    Windows is such a resource hog though, seriously out of 1MB I only have like 480k Memory free when Windows is running. It's taking up more than half a megabyte of RAM.

    Maybe someday I will buy some more ram and upgrade it a bit, and heck who knows, maybe a sound card, and a video card from those days.
  • BigCJBigCJ
    Another Mb or two of RAM and an original SoundBlaster and you'll be in business.
  • menagemenage
    You will benefit from having 64k of extended memory to use HIMEM. Windows 286 will throw stuff in there if not using a later DOS version that occupies it.

    480k free is a lot for Windows. Something like the Windows Clock uses about 12k (8k for code and the rest for data and special structures). Excel is surprisingly svelte. Running a large DOS app will force Windows to discard just about all application code to make room for the DOS app and the system will stall badly on each switch from DOS application to Windows application as the DOS app needs to be saved to disk and Windows code reloaded (and the opposite as well).

    I recommend downloading the Windows SDK for the tools. Heapwalk isn't the easiest memory viewer to use but it will give you a good grasp on how memory is actually being used. hDC Memory Viewer was pretty but hdclib and microman require so much memory there won't be room for applications.
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