PW does not even start!

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Wed Oct 17, 2001 8:43 pm

Hi all,i've been playing for a long time spwaw.Few days ago i decided to try the others two games published by Matrix,WIR and PW.While war in russia goes perfectly ,Pacific war doesn't even start.After the normal installation course,i click on the icon and it starts the presentation radio speach,but then it staops,and on the video appears "wrong frequency"with some numbers(but this doesn't seem a windows problem,kind a Bios one),and i have to reboot my pc because every function in blocked,even alt-ctrl-canc.Any idea to solve this problem?
Thanks in advance
Regards

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Thu Oct 18, 2001 2:15 am

It tells me :"position error 0000:0297" I think it concerns MS-DOS.
Any idea?

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Thu Oct 18, 2001 11:47 am

I read some old topics about this problem and seems that many people have it.For what i understood it concerns dos memory,but i don't really know how to change it.I tried to start the pc in the "safe mode" and the game started,but with many problems in graphics and scrolling.Just a question:why does WIR goes properly nad PW does not?I tried also to uninstall Wir but pw keeps not running.

Ranger-75 · Post by **Ranger-75** » Thu Oct 18, 2001 11:10 pm

Maybe you should stick to commanding Panzer Korps <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

Seriously, You have a DOS memory shortage. WIR has a lower requirement than PacWar. You need to prune your config.sys and autoexec.bat of any unnecessary drivers / TSRs. I had the same problem on every one of my machines and had to manually tune to config.sys abd autoexec.bat to get pacwar to load and run.

From the DOS command line type MEM /c/p

This will give you a table of memory resident programs and their size along with the total free base memory which needs to be almost 600,000 bytes for the program to load and run properly. look at the memory threads in here. Also look at the various .txt help files in the \windows directory. They actually contain useful information on configuring the system to get more DOS session memory.

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Fri Oct 19, 2001 1:24 am

Thanks for your suggestions:tonight i'll try that even if i'm not so used with DOS !!!I'll make u know......
Still thanks

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Sat Oct 20, 2001 4:11 am

Unlucly i was not even able to get into Dos mode do do what u suggested me.Can somebody giude me in the few steps leading to the creation of a free mempry space for PW?
Thanks

Ranger-75 · Post by **Ranger-75** » Sat Oct 20, 2001 7:48 am

Hoepener:

click START / PROGRAMS / DOS SESSION.

Then in the command window type MEM /c/p

look at the size of everything and write it down. Also note the "free base memory" amount.

Ley me knwo what you have and I'll tell you what can be cleared and what you are stuck with.

You need to get "free base memory" up to around 590,000 bytes.

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Sat Oct 20, 2001 3:03 pm

Ok,the numbers i found are:
MS DOS:18272
DISPLAY:18064
HIMEN:1120
DBLBUFF:2976
IFSHLP:2864
WIN:3840
MOUSE:13504
vmm32:26688
KEYB:6944
COMMAND:7424

sill thanks for your help!

Gen.Urquhart · Post by **Gen.Urquhart** » Wed Oct 24, 2001 10:56 am

........Mike?still there? <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Ranger-75 · Post by **Ranger-75** » Fri Oct 26, 2001 6:49 am

Hoepner;
I'll put my figures up here:
Name Total Conventional
-------- ---------------- ----------------
MSDOS 17,216 (17K) 17,216 (17K)
HIMEM 1,120 (1K) 1,120 (1K)
DBLBUFF 2,976 (3K) 2,976 (3K)
IFSHLP 2,864 (3K) 2,864 (3K)
WIN 3,680 (4K) 3,680 (4K)
vmm32 864 (1K) 864 (1K)
COMMAND 7,440 (7K) 7,440 (7K)
DOSKEY 4,688 (5K) 4,688 (5K)
Free 610,176 (596K) 610,176 (596K)

My DOSKEY is loaded for command line sessions but not for the game so I actually have 5KB more than what this screen shows.

Notice my DOS size is smaller than yours, edit your config.sys and reduce the following items:
files = 20 or less
buffers = 4 or less
stacks = 0,0
If you have a shell= line, make sure the /e <img src="tongue.gif" border="0"> arameter is 256 or less.

I notice the following that you have that I don't, and they add up quite a bit.
display
mouse,
keyb
You should not need the mouse driver, winblows should take care of this for you
same with the keyb command, I don't know about the display item, you shouldn't need it in the dos startup files.

These items are all in either config.sys or autoexec.bat.

Let me know what your free memory is after you get these items out of your startup routines.

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Fri Oct 26, 2001 11:08 am

Thanks Mike,but I still have troubles:from where can I manipulate the config.sys and the other one?And how?I'm totally new to the DOS system.So,let's say that i can delete the mouse memory and the keybord one,right?so the question is:how to do it?an u tell me?
Really thanks for your useful help:this comunity grows stronger with this mutual help from the fans
Regards

Ranger-75 · Post by **Ranger-75** » Fri Oct 26, 2001 6:11 pm

Sure Hoepner,

Fire up the winblows explorer. Set it to View / details so you can see the full file names.
go to to c:\ directory (the 'root' directory).

Right click on config.sys, select OPEN WITH and then pick Notepad from the choices.
Remove or edit the lines that need removing or changing. Then save and close.

Right click on autoexec.bat, select EDIT, then do the same.

You'll then have to re-start your system. Do this and then s\check your reesults with the mem /c/p command.

I wouldn't worry too much about the files= buffers= and stacks= lines in config.sys, their total savings will only be about 1KB, its those other 3 devices / TSRs that are eating up your memory.

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Fri Oct 26, 2001 7:07 pm

mmmm...yes,everything seems to be clear,but......what is "winblows explorer"?I thought it could be windows explorer,the one that allow u to see all the folders inside a CD or in the C unit,but following your instruction i found nothing like directory.Do u mean something different from what i understood?I think so.If u hold on i'll keeo exploiting U till i manage to change this damned memory pack!
Still thanks for your help Mike!

Dean Robb · Post by **Dean Robb** » Fri Oct 26, 2001 7:10 pm

Originally posted by Mike Santos:
Sure Hoepner,

Fire up the winblows explorer. Set it to View / details so you can see the full file names.
go to to c:\ directory (the 'root' directory).

Right click on config.sys, select OPEN WITH and then pick Notepad from the choices.
Remove or edit the lines that need removing or changing. Then save and close.

Right click on autoexec.bat, select EDIT, then do the same.

You'll then have to re-start your system. Do this and then s\check your reesults with the mem /c/p command.

I wouldn't worry too much about the files= buffers= and stacks= lines in config.sys, their total savings will only be about 1KB, its those other 3 devices / TSRs that are eating up your memory.

Uh...this really isn't such a great idea. Any changes you make to config.sys and autoexec.bat will apply to EVERY boot of Win9x unless you dual-boot between DOS and Win9x every time.

Far better to modify the program properties of the .exe from within Win9x - that way the mods only apply to PW.

Right-click on the PW shortcut that should exist if you've tried to start the game before and choose properties. Check that the game is set to run in a normal window; that all the "memory" options are set to auto and that "protected" and "uses HMA" are checked; and that screen saver is unchecked under the "misc" tab.

You should also have your config.sys and autoexec.bat EMPTY. Win9x doesn't need those two files, but it will read them and load what it's told to there - which will hurt the system performance as Windows will also load it's own drivers for those things.

Regarding the video frequency issue: Some of the newer cards and high-freq drivers don't play nice with the DOS programs. There's really nothing that can be done to fix the issue; what you must do is to lower the frequency of the card (via Display Properties/advanced/adapter) and experiment to see what the highest frequency you can run and still play is. For my GeForce MX2, I had to go to the default 60 Hz (waaaaay below it's capabilities!) to get my DOS games to run cleanly.

In any case; modifying the config.sys and autoexec.bat for folks running Win9x is not a very good idea. When I teach my A+ class, as a matter of fact, I load up config/autoexec with stuff to screw up the machine for my students to fix.

Hoepner: Please post your config.sys and autoexec.bat file contents and what OS you're running - Win95, WinMe, etc. - since each version does things a bit differently.

[ October 26, 2001: Message edited by: Dean Robb ]</p>

Ranger-75 · Post by **Ranger-75** » Fri Oct 26, 2001 7:30 pm

Dean,

He needs to get that mouse driver (mouse.com or mouse.sys), the keyboard driver (keybd.sys) and that display driver (probably display.sys) out of his startup routines and the only way to do that is by editing these two files.

The only one i would be worried about is the display device driver. I don't know why his machine has such a device loaded, it shouldn't be necessary in a winblows environment, and if it is loaded via autoexec.bat then it can go without any ill effects.

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Fri Oct 26, 2001 8:23 pm

Ok guys,your suggestions seem to have reached something.....i'm not a good student for what it concerns pc and informatic in general.Anyway i went on the pcwar(dos start)and clicked it with the right button.I was able to find most of the things u told me(screen saver,the memory options all set on Auto etc)but couldn't be able to find config.sys and autoexe.bat.Do I have to change some of that memory icons?Turning off the auto mode?I'm running W98 and when i click on the properties i got a screen where in the upper part there are 6 different buttons(general,memory,screen,program,misc,etc)but in none of them there's nothing like config or autoexec....
Thanks

Ranger-75 · Post by **Ranger-75** » Wed Oct 31, 2001 11:48 am

Hoepner,

You need to edit these two files fron the winblows esplorer, that is the file manager. You can't edit these files from the properties of a icon or shortcut. They are actual files on the C: drive.

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Wed Nov 07, 2001 6:03 pm

Originally posted by Mike Santos:
Dean,

He needs to get that mouse driver (mouse.com or mouse.sys), the keyboard driver (keybd.sys) and that display driver (probably display.sys) out of his startup routines and the only way to do that is by editing these two files.

The only one i would be worried about is the display device driver. I don't know why his machine has such a device loaded, it shouldn't be necessary in a winblows environment, and if it is loaded via autoexec.bat then it can go without any ill effects.

Right.
But first let the keyb.com Driver in because it is necessary for non US-keyboards. Otherwise you will have to guess where the keys are. For example in german keyboards the Z and Y are exchanged. Without the driver this not corrected.
You are right with that display.sys driver. It isn't necessary for PacWar or any other programm I know. If I remember right you have to delete the 'mode con= ....' entries in the autoexec.bat too.

[ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: Marc ]</p>

Gen.Hoepner · Post by **Gen.Hoepner** » Wed Nov 07, 2001 8:23 pm

Guys,as u probably have guessed i left the attempt to play PW and WIR.For people like me who do not understand a word of DOS system and pc hardware in general is almost impossible to get out of this mess.BTW i really appreciated tour helpfull suggestions!
Still thanks!