RE: The PC store is stumped on this one . . .

Had something similar on some Dells last year, required BIOS patch from
Dell

Mark Allen
I.S. Manager
Wilkes Telephone & Electric
A Dycom Company
Phone: (706) 678-9565
Email: allenmark@nu-z.net
http://www.nu-z.net




:-----Original Message-----
:From: midrange-nontech-admin@midrange.com
:[mailto:midrange-nontech-admin@midrange.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Crosby
:Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 3:20 PM
:To: midrange-nontechmidrangecom
:Subject: The PC store is stumped on this one . . .
:
:
:We bought some new PCs a couple of weeks ago.  In addition to
:various Windows apps, these customer service PCs run a single
:DOS app.  (BTW, they're W98 with 40gb hard drives and 256mb memory).
:
:Very frequently when doing an Alt-Tab to get to the DOS app
:from a Windows app, these will lock up requiring a hard boot.
:This lockup never happened on the old PCs.  I stopped running
:Norton Clean Sweep and Norton Antivirus to see if that would
:help.  Still lock up.  The PC store which built them is
:stumped as is the provider of the DOS app.  I have the same
:config.sys and autoexec.bat that I used to have on the old PCs
:(loads himem.sys, emm386.exe, and whatnot).
:
:Anybody got any suggestions?
:
:Oh, and here's another thing.  During bootup I get an error
:that "expanded memory services are unavailable" because
:emm386.exe is not loaded.  I get this _before_ config.sys is
:loaded (did a step-by-step boot).  Shortly after this error
:emm386.exe _is_ loaded.  If I go into the properties of the
:desktop shortcut for this DOS app, it says "expanded memory is
:not available because I have 'noems' in the emm386.exe
:statement in the config.sys file."  I do _not_ have 'noems' in
:there which had me scratching my head.
:
:Putting on my thinking cap, I exported the registry to a file
:and searched for emm386 in this file.  I found the following:
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions]
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\DOSSettings]
:@=""
:"Flags"=hex:07,00,00,00
:"Order"=hex:00,00,00,09
:"Config.Sys"="DOS=HIGH,UMB"
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\Himem]
:@=""
:"Flags"=hex:07,00,00,00
:"Order"=hex:00,00,00,10 "Config.Sys"="Device=%WINBOOTDIR%\\Himem.Sys"
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\EMS]
:@="Expanded Memory (EMS)"
:"TipText"="Loads the EMM386 driver to provide expanded memory
:and upper memory blocks (UMBs)." "Flags"=hex:1b,00,00,00
:"Order"=hex:00,00,00,11 "StdOption"=hex:02,00,00,00
:"Config.Sys"="DeviceHigh=%WINDIR%\\EMM386.Exe"
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\Mouse]
:@="Mouse"
:"TipText"="Provides mouse support for MS-DOS-based programs."
:"Flags"=hex:21,00,00,00 "Order"=hex:00,00,00,12
:"StdOption"=hex:01,00,00,00
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\Smartdrv]
:@="Disk Cache"
:"TipText"="Loads the SmartDrv disk cache program to improve
:disk I/O performance." "Flags"=hex:02,00,00,00
:"Order"=hex:00,00,00,13 "Autoexec.Bat"="LoadHigh %WINDIR%\\SmartDrv"
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\Doskey]
:@="MS-DOS Command Line Editor (Doskey)"
:"TipText"="Provides convenient command-line editing and recall
:functions." "Flags"=hex:02,00,00,00 "Order"=hex:00,00,00,14
:"Autoexec.Bat"="LoadHigh %WINDIR%\\Command\\DOSKey"
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\Lock]
:@="Direct Disk Access"
:"TipText"="Enables MS-DOS-based programs to directly modify
:disk data structures." "Flags"=hex:02,00,00,00
:"Order"=hex:00,00,00,15 "StdOption"=hex:10,00,00,00
:"Autoexec.Bat"="Lock"
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\Net]
:@="Network"
:"TipText"="Enables MS-DOS-based programs to connect to network
:drives and printers." "Flags"=hex:00,00,00,00
:"Order"=hex:00,00,00,16 "StdOption"=hex:08,00,00,00
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\CD-ROM]
:@="CD-ROM"
:"TipText"="Enables MS-DOS-based programs to access CD-ROM
:drives." "Flags"=hex:00,00,00,00 "Order"=hex:00,00,00,17
:"StdOption"=hex:04,00,00,00
:
:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\M
:S-DOSOptions\Vesa]
:@="Vesa Display Driver"
:"TipText"="Enables MS-DOS-based programs access to advanced
:graphics capabilities." "Flags"=hex:00,00,00,00
:"Order"=hex:00,00,00,18 "StdOption"=hex:40,00,00,00
:
:There's a bunch of DOS "config.sys" type statements that are
:being executed here before the regular config.sys runs!  The
:PC store did not know this stuff existed in the registry.
:Neither did I, but I never went looking for MS-DOS stuff in
:the registry.
:
:Is this normal stuff in the registry?  Thanks.
:
:--
:-Jeff
:
:New email address: jlcrosby@dilgardfoods.com
:
:The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily
:the opinion of my company.  Unless I say so.
:
:_______________________________________________
:This is the Non-Technical Discussion about the AS400 / iSeries
:(Midrange-NonTech) mailing list To post a message email:
:Midrange-NonTech@midrange.com To subscribe, unsubscribe, or
:change list options,
:visit: http://lists.midrange.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/midrange-nontech
:or email: Midrange-NonTech-request@midrange.com
:Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
:at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-nontech.
: