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1992-10-12
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PRODUCT : Paradox NUMBER : 782
VERSION : 3.5 & up
OS : DOS
DATE : October 12, 1992 PAGE : 1/7
TITLE : Troubleshooting DOS 5.0 and Paradox
What follows are a number of suggestions for configuring DOS 5.0
for use with Paradox and are intended as tips and suggestions
only. DOS 5.0 was released after Paradox 3.5. Therefore we
cannot completely guarantee Paradox will function properly with
DOS 5.0. Our experience to date is that DOS 5.0 and Paradox work
well together. For further information concerning DOS 5.0,
please contact Microsoft Technical Support.
This technical information bulletin assumes the reader has a
basic knowledge of Paradox and DOS, in addition to some
familiarity of memory management in general. If you are not
familiar with how to configure Paradox, please refer to the
Paradox User's Guide, Chapter 14 - Advanced Topics. It may also
be useful to review how Paradox itself manages memory which is
discussed in the same chapter.
The principles of DOS 5.0 memory management are similar to using
any other version of DOS and a memory manager such as QEMM386, or
386Max to load programs into high memory. DOS 5.0 gives this
ability on some level to 286 and higher machines. However,
loading programs into high memory (or UMB's as DOS 5.0 refers to
them) can cause memory conflicts and unusual results. The user
should be aware this can happen and be prepared to review the
techniques in the DOS 5.0 manuals.
NOTE: Always remember, the best method of testing remains going
to a "clean" (plain) system. For this document a "clean" system
means you have only FILES and BUFFERS statements in the
CONFIG.SYS file, and only PATH and PROMPT statements in the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Having rebooted your machine with a "clean"
system, Paradox should be able to run fine. Once you know
Paradox can run on your "clean" system, you can reconfigure the
system by adding in any additional statements to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS one at a time. Paradox should be
tested after each reconfiguration and rebooted to discover which
program or device has caused the incompatibility.
Part I: DOS 5.0
In order to use DOS 5.0's new features, DOS requires a 286 or
higher machine and a minimum of 1 MB of RAM. The 286 can only
PRODUCT : Paradox NUMBER : 782
VERSION : 3.5 & up
OS : DOS
DATE : October 12, 1992 PAGE : 2/7
TITLE : Troubleshooting DOS 5.0 and Paradox
load DOS high, not other TSR's (terminate & stay resident
programs) or device drivers.
On a 286:
The CONFIG.SYS should follow this format:
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS [options]
Other device drivers and statements...
DOS=HIGH
DOS 5.0 loads the command shell (COMMAND.COM) and its own kernel
into high memory, freeing up a considerable amount of memory on
most systems. Device drivers or TSR's cannot be loaded into high
memory on a 286. Therefore the DEVICEHIGH and LOADHIGH statement
do not function on a 286 machine. See the DOS manual in Chapter
12, Optimizing your System, for details.
Problems: On 1 MB RAM systems; Paradox cannot run in
protected mode. There is no longer enough memory to do so
with DOS loaded high. Configure Paradox for real mode for
better performance by typing paradox -real. To make real
mode the default mode, see the Paradox User's Guide -
Chapter 14. Symptoms are "Insufficient memory to run
Paradox" error messages, or the system freezing or hanging
when trying load Paradox.
Paradox should be able to run cleanly in protected
mode on systems with more than 1 MB of EXTENDED memory.
There are products which will load device drivers and TSR's
into high RAM even on a 286; see Part III.
On 286 systems with greater than 1 MB of RAM, the
use of EMM.SYS or another similar memory manager which
converts extended memory into expanded memory, can prevent
Paradox from running in protected mode. Test Paradox on a
clean system. Also try to leave a minimum of 1 MB of
extended memory to Paradox by configuring the EMM.SYS
driver following it's manual. Otherwise, Paradox will need
to run in real mode or the driver must be removed.
PRODUCT : Paradox NUMBER : 782
VERSION : 3.5 & up
OS : DOS
DATE : October 12, 1992 PAGE : 3/7
TITLE : Troubleshooting DOS 5.0 and Paradox
On a 386 or higher:
The CONFIG.SYS should follow this format:
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS [options, if any]
DEVICE=EMM386.EXE [options, if any]
DOS=HIGH,UMB
Other devices and statements...
Devices loaded high (using DEVICEHIGH=...)
The AUTOEXEC.BAT can load TSR's into high memory if they will fit
there using the internal DOS LOADHIGH (LH) command. This can
also be used at the DOS prompt.
DOS will load itself into high memory as with a 286. In
addition, the EMM386.EXE driver can be used to load device
drivers and TSR's into high memory. Be aware that the order the
devices are called in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, is
the order DOS will try to place them in memory. They must be
loaded in the correct order in memory since the UMB's are
noncontiguous and vary in size. That order will depend on the
size of the individual program.
If the user does not wish to load more than DOS itself into high
memory, and expanded memory is not needed for other programs,
EMM386.EXE can be left out of the CONFIG.SYS. This will minimize
the need for following these configuration steps.
Problems: On a 1 MB system, similar difficulties will be
encountered running in protected mode as on a 286.
Sometimes Paradox will actually switch automatically into
real mode when the memory is used to load devices high.
If EMM386.EXE is loaded using the NOEMS switch
(see Part II), the error "Incompatible memory manager
message" as with previous versions of DOS's EMM386.SYS. Do
not run Paradox when receiving this message. Reconfigure
either Paradox or the EMM386.EXE statement. Paradox will
run fine in real mode using the real switch, or the
configuration options for EMM386.EXE listed in the next
section should be followed.
PRODUCT : Paradox NUMBER : 782
VERSION : 3.5 & up
OS : DOS
DATE : October 12, 1992 PAGE : 4/7
TITLE : Troubleshooting DOS 5.0 and Paradox
Part II: HIMEM and EMM386
There may be any number of issues related to HIMEM.SYS, and far
too many to properly cover here. If there are problems with
running Paradox on a clean system with HIMEM.SYS loaded, it may
be a hardware/HIMEM issue. Check the README.TXT that comes with
DOS 5.0. There are numerous special hardware configurations
listed there.
DOS 5.0 uses HIMEM or any other memory manager loaded to load
itself into high memory on 286 or higher processors when DOS=HIGH
is in the CONFIG.SYS.
There is also a switch for HIMEM.SYS called /INT15. This
allocates memory to an older memory type. Any memory allocated
by this switch causes memory to become unavailable to the current
version of Paradox. Only the correct use of the EMM386.EXE
driver to reallocate memory will restore this memory to Paradox.
See the Microsoft DOS 5.0 manual for more detail on the /INT15
switch.
EMM386.EXE is the more confusing of the DOS 5.0 memory managers.
Here are the most commonly used and needed (or unneeded of the
switches we will run across for Paradox).
NOEMS Provides UMB access but no EMS
RAM Provides UMB access and EMS
Mx Specifies a page frame address
FRAME=address Specifies a page frame directly
X=mmmm-nnnn Excludes a section of memory
NOEMS: This switch disables the page frame so EMM386.EXE is no
longer VCPI compliant. While the user can load things into high
memory and have only extended memory, they cannot run Paradox in
protected mode.
RAM: This switch allows both the loading of devices into High
memory and the use of expanded memory which is VCPI compliant.
This allows Paradox to run in protected mode since the memory
will switch into XMS memory when Paradox requests it. In some
cases the page frame does not get allocated, due to lack of space
when loading devices high. Use the FRAME switch to force this.
PRODUCT : Paradox NUMBER : 782
VERSION : 3.5 & up
OS : DOS
DATE : October 12, 1992 PAGE : 5/7
TITLE : Troubleshooting DOS 5.0 and Paradox
Mx: This switch allows the user to specify the address of a page
frame without knowing the actual address values. The value x can
vary from 1 to 9.
FRAME=address: This switch directly specifies where the page
frame segment should be loaded, which will also help force it to
load. Without a page frame, EMM386.EXE is not VCPI compliant.
X=mmmm-nnnn: This switch allows the user to exclude areas of
memory which may be causing memory conflicts, such as video RAM
or network adapters.
On many systems, EMM386.EXE can work without any command line
options, but if Paradox will not run in protected mode, then try
allocating a page frame using either the FRAME or the M switch.
A typical working EMM386.EXE statement might look like the
following:
DEVICE=EMM386.EXE 512 RAM FRAME=E000h X=A000-AFFF.
This configuration allocates a page frame to E000, and excludes
the area of memory a standard VGA card uses.
Part III: DOS 5 & QEMM386.EXE
On 286 or lower machines, Quarterdeck provides a product called
QRAM which provides the ability to load devices and TSR's into
high memory as on a 386. The same memory issues will then apply
to a 286 as well. Call Quarterdeck Software for more details
about QRAM.
QEMM386.SYS will actually manage memory in the place of HIMEM.SYS
and EMM386.EXE. This can save some memory at the outset. It can
also allow DOS to be loaded high using the DOS=HIGH statement in
the CONFIG.SYS. If QEMM386 is used, the UMB in the DOS=HIGH
statement should not be included, as it relates only to
EMM386.EXE. QEMM386 will handle it's own upper memory area if
installed normally and Quarterdeck's Optimize program is run.
If the UMB option on the DOS=HIGH line is included in the
CONFIG.SYS, then DOS's own LOADHIGH and DEVICEHIGH statements
PRODUCT : Paradox NUMBER : 782
VERSION : 3.5 & up
OS : DOS
DATE : October 12, 1992 PAGE : 6/7
TITLE : Troubleshooting DOS 5.0 and Paradox
should be utilized rather than the abilities of QEMM386
LOADHI.SYS and LOADHI.COM. The most recent versions of QEMM386
are supposed to change this. Again, for more information,
contact Quarterdeck Software.
386Max or other memory management software employ similar
techniques though we give no details here. Use your own judgment
based on knowledge of DOS 5.0 and QEMM discussed here, and
contact the appropriate manufacturer for more details.
Part IV: Other Topics
"Unable to record lock/unlock in ..\paradox.net" can occur if the
user is in a network situation or when using the Paradox Access
to Quattro Pro. If the situation is a network, refer to the DOS
5.0 Getting Started Manual for details on how to configure the
network to work properly with DOS 5.0. If the network is not
listed, call Microsoft and the network company for further
assistance. Incompatible network drivers can cause these error
messages. Loading network drivers high can also cause this error
message. Not all network drivers are safe to load into high
memory.
The Paradox Access may have problems on 2 MB machines if enough
devices are loaded high so Paradox cannot leave 512k free for
Quattro to use as expanded memory. Some devices may need to be
removed from high memory, or more memory can be added to the
machine. In most cases, the Access should work. Try a clean
system as described in the beginning of this Technical Sheet to
see if things will work at all. Reconfigure Paradox for
protected mode. If this does not work, reinstall Paradox and
reconfigure the Access. This resets all values to their defaults
and allows a better tally to be kept of what settings are being
changed from the defaults.
TUNE: Running TUNE within Paradox's Custom Configuration Program
(the CUSTOM script) should NOT be done under DOS 5.0 without
first rebooting with a "clean" system and then starting Paradox
in real mode (see "clean" system on Page 1 of this document).
After running TUNE, your previous configuration can be restored.
PRODUCT : Paradox NUMBER : 782
VERSION : 3.5 & up
OS : DOS
DATE : October 12, 1992 PAGE : 7/7
TITLE : Troubleshooting DOS 5.0 and Paradox
SHARE: DOS 5.0 has the extended partition support built into it,
unlike previous versions of DOS (4.x and some versions of 3.3x)
which used share to support extended partitions. These are
partitions larger than 32 MB in size. Therefore DOS 5.0 users no
longer need share loaded in order to have large partitions.
Paradox users who wish to run under Windows, Desqview, and other
multiuser, multitasking environments, or networks which are not
listed in our Network Admin Guide, must still use SHARE.EXE and
the PARADOX -SHARE command line option. Another part of the DOS
Share program, which approximates net bios for the proper sharing
of files, is a requirement of Paradox. This will allow users to
concurrently access data.
The instructions for configuring DOS 5.0 or other mentioned
software for use with Paradox were, at the time of this writing,
accurate. For specific technical information we must defer to
the experts at the appropriate manufacturer.
386Max is a product of Qualitas Software. QEMM386, QRAM,
DESQVIEW are products of Quarterdeck Office Systems. DOS 5.0 and
WINDOWS are products of the Microsoft Corporation.
DISCLAIMER: You have the right to use this technical information
subject to the terms of the No-Nonsense License Statement that
you received with the Borland product to which this information
pertains.