Nagging problem with DOS app under Win2k on ABit/Matrox G450

Post #114,541 by Another Scott 8/20/03 10:05:47 AM Reply	Nagging problem with DOS app under Win2k on ABit/Matrox G450 Hi, A problem's been nagging at me for a while on this Win2k box. I have an old full-screen DOS graphics program written in Turbo Pascal (the code has been updated with the latest TP runtime to let it run on fast machines). It runs in VGA graphics mode. I need to run it on an AMD PC using a ABit KT7A-RAID (in non-RAID mode, with the latest BIOS, latest VIA 4-in-1, etc.). It's a 1000 MHz Athlon system with 768 MB of RAM set for a 100 MHz system bus. The BIOS settings are generally set for "Optimized for best performance" - nothing's overclocked and no system voltages have been adjusted. I installed Win2K SP4. The graphics card is a Matrox G450 dual head. It has 32 MB of RAM and I'm only using the primary monitor channel. I'm using the lastest BIOS and the latest Matrox (non-certified) drivers. The system is stable under Win2K. However, when I run the DOS app it'll sometimes run for a while then freeze. The NumLock key still works and Alt-Tab still works, but no other key is accepted. Other times the keyboard will work for a while, but the program will freeze after using the mouse. The program is stable on every other machine I've tried including a Soyo Dragon+ AthlonXP 1.3 with 512 MB RAM with a Matrox G550 running Win2k + SP2, a Tyan SMP board with a single P3-500 with 256 MB, a couple of Compaq Presarios (one with 768 MB and Win2K+SP2, one with 256 MB and XPHome), etc. It seems to be something about this particular combination of hardware. I've tried tweaking the DOS settings without effect. I've spent an hour or so Googling for suggestions without a positive result. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to try to get this working without buying new hardware? I do have a SB-Live Basic card in it on IRQ 11. Perhaps that's [link\|http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&threadm=9gsut8%24fpc%241%40sshuraaa-i-1.production.compuserve.com&rnum=5&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26q%3DAbit%2BMatrox%2BDOS%2BWindows%2B2000%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg\|it] and I need to try changing the ACPI settings. Thoughts? Thanks a bunch. Cheers, Scott.
Post #114,545 by pwhysall 8/20/03 10:24:15 AM Reply	Re: Nagging problem with DOS app under Win2k on ABit/Matrox Long shot: try assigning the graphics card its own IRQ in the BIOS. Everything else can share. Peter [link\|http://www.debian.org\|Shill For Hire] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Blog]
Post #114,576 by deSitter 8/20/03 1:33:06 PM Reply	Good call, use 9 ..and perhaps switch default display to PCI instead of AGP? -drl
Post #114,583 by Another Scott 8/20/03 2:00:41 PM Reply	Half the world's hanging off IRQ-11. ****************** IRQ SUMMARY ****************** IRQ Usage Summary: (ISA) 0 System timer (ISA) 1 Standard 101/102\ufffdKey or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard (ISA) 3 Communications Port (COM2) (ISA) 4 Communications Port (COM1) (ISA) 6 Standard floppy disk controller (ISA) 8 System CMOS/real time clock (ISA) 9 Microsoft ACPI\ufffdCompliant System (PCI) 11 Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead \ufffd English (PCI) 11 VIA USB Universal Host Controller (PCI) 11 VIA USB Universal Host Controller (PCI) 11 Creative SB Live! Basic (WDM) (PCI) 11 3Com EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI TX NIC (3C905B\ufffdTX) (ISA) 12 Logitech\ufffdcompatible Mouse PS/2 (ISA) 13 Numeric data processor (ISA) 14 VIA BM Ultra DMA Channel (ISA) 15 VIA BM Ultra DMA Channel I'll have to rummage around the case when I get a chance to see which cards are plugged in where, and see if I can easily put the Matrox on a different IRQ. 10 perhaps? PCI slot 1 shares IRQs with the AGP card. PCI slot 4 and the USB controllers share an IRQ. The USB hub on this thing has always been more flakey than I'd like (I usually reboot after using the 6-in-1 reader with my MemoryStick to make sure things don't lock up, etc.). I may try removing the SB Live card and even the USB stuff and see if that helps. Thanks for putting me on this line of attack. It may take me a few days to try these various things. Please keep any suggestions coming. Cheers, Scott.
Post #114,584 by deSitter 8/20/03 2:08:00 PM Reply	definitely an issue I had to juggle the assignments on my ThinkPad until I found a combo that would work for Linux - hard hangs with the wrong choices, and USB always involved. The solution was by trial and error, which is worse even than those early days of Plug and Pray. Windows seems to do better at this dance than Linux. Don't know why. I always have the sinking feeling that the wrong choice impairs overall performance, but have no way to verify one way or the other. -drl
Post #114,593 by orion 8/20/03 3:13:19 PM Reply	Four things #1 is this program using VESA to access the graphics? If so you might need to get an updated driver for DOS from it and run it before you run the program so it can hook into the video card better. #2 If you have the source code to the program, you might want to try to convert it to Virtual Pascal or Delphi for Windows and remove the direct video access with Windows calls. It might work better on Windows machines if you do that. Of course this will take a bit of work, but it will yeild a more Windows compliant program. #3 What memory settings are you using for it? Any EMS memory required? Are you excluding any upper memory addresses in your DOS and Windows configurations? Usually I see Video Adapters using C000-C7FF for some upper memory tasks, and sometimes E000-EFFF for a whole 64K block of upper memory. Something in DOS memory might be trying to use these addresses. #4 When in danger, when in doubt, run a virtual machine like Bochs. [link\|http://sourceforge.net/projects/bochs/\|http://sourceforge.net/projects/bochs/] you can run FreeDOS or some other DOS under it and while it runs slower, it might actually run your TP program if Win2K cannot. *"Lady I only speak two languages, English and Bad English!" - Corbin Dallas "The Fifth Element"*
Post #115,417 by Another Scott 8/26/03 10:50:16 AM Reply	Seems to have been the 3c905B-TX drivers. Hi All, I tried moving the 3c905B-TX NIC from PCI slot 1 (next to the Matrox G450 AGP card) to slot 2 (that previously held the SoundBlaster Live Value) and the SB to slot 3. No change - it still locked up under DOS VGA graphics. I moved the SB to PCI slot 6, no change. I moved the NIC to slot 4 and the SB to slot 2, no change. I removed the SB, no change. So it seemed to be something with the NIC. I just installed 3com's latest 3c905B driver and the problem seems to be gone. Yay! :-) I'm now using ver 4.31.0.0 dated 8/13/02 (downloaded [link\|ftp://ftp.3com.com/pub/nic/3c90x/3c90x1.exe\|here]). I was previously using the 3c905B driver that came with Win2k. As on every other PC with Win2K that I've looked at, the video, NIC and sound are sharing IRQ11. And the USB stuff still seems to work. Thanks for the help. Cheers, Scott.

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