Hi Chris,

 >  NP> I have a 286/12, and have discovered that it has 1024k of XMS.
 >  NP> I have loaded Himem.sys and that has allowed me to load DOS high.
 >  NP> After doing this Both Mem /c and MSD reported that I had 980k of XMS
 >  NP> free.
 >  NP> I have had no experience of 286's (I jumped from XT's to 386's) and
 >  NP> hoping someone can inform me as HOW I can get to use this 980k.

 > I was using 286's here for a while...

I missed them conpletely!


 >  NP> Using the 386 method of loading EMM386 only results in an error
 >  NP> message of "incorrect processor type"

 > I wonder why?

I should have added " as I expected it to do" :-)


 >  NP> Is there something I am missing that will make this memory available
 >  NP> for use??

 > You have about two choices, a Ramdrive or a disk cache like Smartdrive.

Mickey$ofts DOS 5 RAMDRIVE & SMARTDRV.SYS bothe refuse to co-operate
and inform me that there is "No XMS memory mamger installed"


 > Depends on what you are doing... mail readers like GoldEd get
 > a major speed boost from a cache, and things that swap temp files
 > to disk during their operation (Windows 3 and the Bluewave mail
 > reader are two examples) get a nice boost from setting the swap
 > directory to a Ramdrive.

Yeah.  I run a 3 meg Ramdrive and a 2 meg Cache on the 486.
Speeds things up to a fantastic degree.  Cache hits are typically between 86% and 92%

 > The only real problem with either - both will also use up
 > conventional RAM, up to about 40 or 50K, which dosen't leave
 > enough of the 640K to run some apps...

All the apps I will be using will quite happily settle for 550k.


 > and a loadhigh isn't
 > an option on a 286, as loading high needs EMM386, and EMM386
 > needs (you guessed it!) a 386 class processor minimum...

I put the lines in CONFIG.SYS ....

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH

and managed to get the bulk of DOS out of conventional memory and into High
memory, but that was as far as I can get.

Previous to this I had 1,048,576 of XMS, but it still leaves a nice 983,040
bytes still free that I would dearly love to put to use.


 > Memories....  :-)

My trouble is that too many of my memories got lost 4 years ago, and it has
been a slow relearning process since then :-(


 > PS: I emailed that JPG to a couple of TML users (JG & DM), if all
 > went well it should be on Paul's system soon...

Thanks heaps for that

Kind regards
Niels Petersen

--- FMail/386 0.98