Gateway 2000 Handbook: XMS memory weirdness.

[Attilla Danko]

I have a Gateway 2000 Handbook sub-laptop with the extra 2M memory board.
I have a strange problem with managing that 2meg as XMS memory.
I can get my handbook to crash repeatably by comparing two large
(~600k) but identical files in ramdisk.

I use HIMEM.SYS as the XMS provider and I use RAMDRIVE
with the /E option to place the ramdisk in extended memory. I use the FC
dos command to compare the files. My hand book will crash during the file
compare. Sometimes the first file compare will succeed. However, my handbook
has never survived more that 5 sequenctial file compares of the same files.
When it crashes, it hangs with either a blank screen or a screen with a repeating
pattern of ascii garbage. I need to use the reset button to recover the machine.

I observe this behavior when my config.sys
file contains only the device statements for HIMEM.SYS and RAMDRIVE.SYS.

I have observed similar behavior with other ramdisks. I have also observed
DOS hanging when I have used DOS=HIGH and have observed MSWORKS hanging when
I edit large files.

Bad memory card? Thats what GW2000 thought and they sent me a new one.
The new card shows exacly the same behavior.

The weird thing about this problem is that I have no touble at all when I use
PCCEMM.SYS (expanded memory manager for handbook). Ramdisks and all my software seem to work fine.

I asked GW2000 is this was some kind of a software compatiblity problem, but
the fellow I spoke to claimed that his handbook had no prolems with RAMDRIVE
and HIMEM. Thats when he sent me the new memory card.

Any ideas as to what is going on here?

Thanks in advance.

--
Attilla Danko BNR, P.O. Box 3511, STN C, Ottawa, ONT, Canada
BITnet: da...@BNR.CA
standard_disclaimer -> runningprocptr@.disclaimer;

[Anthony J Stieber]

In article <1993Feb17.1...@bnr.ca> da...@bnr.ca (Attilla Danko) writes:
>I have a Gateway 2000 Handbook sub-laptop with the extra 2M memory board.

>I use HIMEM.SYS as the XMS provider and I use RAMDRIVE

>with the /E option to place the ramdisk in extended memory. I use the FC
>dos command to compare the files. My hand book will crash during the file
>compare. Sometimes the first file compare will succeed. However, my handbook

I'm surprised that HIMEM.SYS and extended memory work at all on the
machine. The HandBook has a Chips & Technologies 8680 processor in
it. As far as I know this processor is not Intel 80286 compatible and
doesn't have A20 or protected mode.

>The weird thing about this problem is that I have no touble at all when I use
>PCCEMM.SYS (expanded memory manager for handbook). Ramdisks and all my software seem to work fine.

This makes perfect sense to me.
--
<-:(= Anthony Stieber ant...@csd4.csd.uwm.edu uwm!uwmcsd4!anthony

[Attilla Danko]

In article <1lutmt...@uwm.edu>, ant...@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J Stieber) writes:
|> In article <1993Feb17.1...@bnr.ca> da...@bnr.ca (Attilla Danko) writes:
|> >I have a Gateway 2000 Handbook sub-laptop with the extra 2M memory board.
|>
|> >I use HIMEM.SYS as the XMS provider and I use RAMDRIVE
|> >with the /E option to place the ramdisk in extended memory. I use the FC
|> >dos command to compare the files. My hand book will crash during the file
|> >compare. Sometimes the first file compare will succeed. However, my handbook
|>
|> I'm surprised that HIMEM.SYS and extended memory work at all on the
|> machine. The HandBook has a Chips & Technologies 8680 processor in
|> it. As far as I know this processor is not Intel 80286 compatible and
|> doesn't have A20 or protected mode.

| .
| .
Perhaps. But Gateway 2000 belives that HIMEM.SYS should work on a
Handbook:

1. When one buys a Handbook with the 2meg memory extension
installed, it arrives pre-configured with HIMEM.SYS.
2. When I described my problem to a droid on the GW2000 tech-help
line, he repeated my testcase (i.e. FC large, identical
files in XMS ramdisk, using HIMEM and RAMDRIVE). He manually
FC-ed about 10 times with no problems. He *said* he was
using a Handbook for the test.

Is GW2000 very confused, or do other Handbooks not have this
weirdness?

[j...@venus.sunquest.com]

In article <1993Feb18.0...@bnr.ca> da...@bnr.ca (Attilla Danko) writes:
>Perhaps. But Gateway 2000 belives that HIMEM.SYS should work on a
>Handbook:

From what I've read, the Gateway 2000 Handbook chip takes
almost all 80286 instructions. Additionally, there is
something mentioned during bootup about A20 being loaded...

--
--
j...@sunquest.com

Confucious say, "".

[KP2 KP2]

good computer