freedos - not enough memory (even for doom and I have 32 mb)

[deathclaw]

So I have installed free dos and almost everything works fine except some more demanding games like doom, death rally etc. every time I try to load any of such games it says that I do not have enough memory....like when I try to play doom, this is the last line

DOS/4GW Professional fatal error (1307): not enough memory

please help me, I am really desperate...thank you in advance

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Uh, use DOSBox?

[Hatta]

I dont think DOSBOX will work if he only has 32 mb of ram. But yeah, this is one of the reasons I stick with emulation for DOS, messing with your config.sys to get enough extended and expanded memory. WTF is the difference anyway.

Anyway, try looking into your config.sys, maybe messing with HIMEM or EMM386 will fix it. You could always try running it with Dos32/a instead of Dos4GW too.

[deathclaw]

Uh, use DOSBox?

the thing is, I want to play it on my old computer

Hatta - yeah, I think it would be something with HIMEM or EMM386, but I'm not much into such things, so I don't thing I would be able to repair it

[gtmtnbiker]

Wow, I haven't fuss with that DOS stuff for almost 15 years.

Try doing something like this:

Getting additional memory

The below commands will help allow your computer to load programs into memory more efficiently allowing you to have more memory for MS-DOS programs / games.

Ensure you have the below three lines at the beginning of your config.sys file.

DEVICE=C:\Windows\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\Windows\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

By placing the DOS=HIGH,UMB on the second line, this can, in some cases, save memory because it is loading DOS into upper memory before loading the memory manager. Additionally, the first and third lines cannot be loaded into high memory because these lines are the memory managers.

Load all your devices in your config.sys and autoexec.bat into high memory.


This stuff was from: http://www.computerhope.com/ac.htm

You probably want to google some more

[Hatta]

Yeah, it's been a while since I messed with it, but I did a little googling. This post on another forum should help:

You simply need to rem out MOST of your config & autoexec lines most of them ar'nt required to run DOOM. The last thing you want to do is enable EMS!! ALL you need in config.sys is:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.exe NOEMS
FILES=40
DOS=UMB
DOS=HIGH

Rem the other lines out they just use up memory that DOOM would use...


And for Autoexec.bat :

@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $T $P$G
cls


again rem out the rest...

This sounds right to me, but my memory is foggy. Give it a shot, and back up your old config.sys and autoexec.bat first.

[Dakinggamer87]

I haven't used DOS in years I still remember most of the commands..

[deathclaw]

Yeah, it's been a while since I messed with it, but I did a little googling. This post on another forum should help:

You simply need to rem out MOST of your config & autoexec lines most of them ar'nt required to run DOOM. The last thing you want to do is enable EMS!! ALL you need in config.sys is:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.exe NOEMS
FILES=40
DOS=UMB
DOS=HIGH

Rem the other lines out they just use up memory that DOOM would use...


And for Autoexec.bat :

@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $T $P$G
cls


again rem out the rest...

This sounds right to me, but my memory is foggy. Give it a shot, and back up your old config.sys and autoexec.bat first.

thank you really much...now even quake works flawlessly at 640x480! man, it looks so real...how can graphics become any better than THIS? this game is reality itself

ok, so it's all fine, but now my cdrom as well as sound card don't work...so here is my old config.sys and let me know which lines should I put in there and where should I put them : )

!COUNTRY=001,437,C:\FDOS\BIN\COUNTRY.SYS
!SET lang=EN
!LASTDRIVE=Z
!BUFFERS=20
!FILES=40
!DOS=HIGH,UMB
!DOSDATA=UMB
!set dircmd=/ogn /4
!MENUCOLOR=7,0
MENUDEFAULT=2,5
MENU 1 - Load FreeDOS with EMM386, no EMS (most UMBs), max RAM free
MENU 2 - Load FreeDOS with EMM386+EMS and SHARE
MENU 3 - Load FreeDOS including HIMEM XMS-memory driver
MENU 4 - Load FreeDOS without drivers
DOS=HIGH,UMB
123?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\HIMEM.EXE
1?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=TEST
2?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\EMM386.EXE X=TEST
;123?DEVICEHIGH=C:\FDOS\bin\xdma.sys
123?DEVICEHIGH=C:\FDOS\bin\xcdrom.sys /d:FDCD0001
123?DEVICEHIGH=C:\FDOS\bin\cdrcache.sys FDCD0001 CDRCACH0 15000
SHELLHIGH=C:\FDOS\bin\command.com C:\FDOS\bin /E:1024 /P=C:\autoexec.bat
123?INSTALLHIGH=C:\FDOS\bin\lbacache.com 15000 TUNS

and my old autoexec.bat

@echo off
SET dosdir=C:\FDOS
set PATH=%dosdir%\bin
set NLSPATH=%dosdir%\NLS
set HELPPATH=%dosdir%\HELP
set temp=%dosdir%\temp
set tmp=%dosdir%\temp
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330
REM ShsuCDhd /QQ /F:C:\FDBOOTCD.ISO
if not "%config%"=="4" REM LH VIAUDIO
if not "%config%"=="4" REM LH VIAFMTSR
if not "%config%"=="4" LH FDAPM APMDOS
if "%config%"=="2" LH SHARE
if not "%config%"=="4" ShsuCDX /QQ /~ /D:?FDCD0002 /D:?FDCD0003 /D:?CDRCACH0
SET autofile=C:\autoexec.bat
alias reboot=fdapm warmboot
alias halt=fdapm poweroff
SET CFGFILE=C:\fdconfig.sys
echo type HELP to get support on commands and navigation
echo.
echo Welcome to FreeDOS
echo.
if not "%config%"=="4" mouse
lh doslfn
c:\vc\vc.com

[Hatta]

123?DEVICEHIGH=C:\FDOS\bin\xcdrom.sys /d:FDCD0001

That looks like the line in config.sys that handles your CDROM. Not sure what's with the 123? at the beginning of the line, I don't think you need that.

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330

That sets up your sound blaster compatible card in autoexec.bat.

I'm not familiar with Freedos, but you might want this line too:

SET CFGFILE=C:\fdconfig.sys

I don't think that should take any memory, but try it both ways if you have problems.

[deathclaw]

123?DEVICEHIGH=C:\FDOS\bin\xcdrom.sys /d:FDCD0001

That looks like the line in config.sys that handles your CDROM. Not sure what's with the 123? at the beginning of the line, I don't think you need that.

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330

That sets up your sound blaster compatible card in autoexec.bat.

I'm not familiar with Freedos, but you might want this line too:

SET CFGFILE=C:\fdconfig.sys

I don't think that should take any memory, but try it both ways if you have problems.

So it doesn't work anyway. I tried to use the same config.sys and autoexec.bat and it worked, (with not having enough memory for games like Doom, Quake,...) but then I deleted this line

123?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\HIMEM.EXE

and the cd drive didn't work...it said something like it doesn't have enough memory, so the cd driver would not load...but it was way too fast, so I couldn't read it ...is there a way how to read it, even though it's no longer on screen? I think it would help