After a hdd crash I tried to reinstall Modsoft 2.61 on one of our old laptops, and I can't get the install to run. It says too little memory.

It's 128mb on this laptop. Before the crash we ran DOS 6.22 on it and all worked fine. Now I have installed a newer DOS 7.10 when I didn't find our old DOS 6.22 disks. Any ideas how to get it to work? I don't use DOS so often so pls help me.

 

When you type mem /c you will display a list of how much memory you have configured and what type it is. You may need to run the dos memory manager to fix it. You can type help /? and a list of what you can get help on will be on the screen. For example: memmaker /? <enter> will bring up help and syntex for the dos memory manager. If you are a dos guy, you may need to simply edit your config.sys file, it is in the root directory of drive C:, for the correct number of files and buffers

I hope this helps,
Bill

 

I believe that MS-DOS 7.10 was used as the OS underlying the MS-Windows 95 and 98 GUIs. It had a number of new features, but is supposedly otherwise similar to MS-DOS 6.22. MS-DOS is a 16 bit operating system that runs in "real mode" only on x86 processors, and can only access the first 1 megabytes of address space. The hardware design of the IBM PC (and compatibles) however further restricted RAM to the first 640 kilobytes of address space.

However, there are also features in all later versions of MS-DOS which allow some RAM above the 640k limit to be used as "upper memory blocks" (UMB). These move parts of MS-DOS, plus some buffers and drivers out of the lower 640k to make more room for application programs. It was quite common in the later days of MS-DOS usage to have to fiddle with the memory configuration to get enough RAM for larger programs to run.

The memory configuration is controlled by two files - "config.sys" and "autoexec.bat". Neither is necessary to boot, but if they are present they can be used to modify the configuration from the default. Both of these are normally located in the root directory. They are simple ASCII files that you can edit with a text editor (e.g. "edit" if that is present).

The "config.sys" file is read during boot, and is normally used to load drivers, set buffer sizes, etc. The order of the configuration options can be significant, and again it was quite common to have to fiddle with the contents of this file until everything worked.

The "autoexec.bat" file is intended to run as the last stage of the boot process, and can be used to run various programs automatically on start up. However, it can also be used to load drivers if these drivers are written to be loaded from the command line. Again, it was quite common to have to fiddle with this file to get things to work.

1) The first thing to do is to run the "mem" command to find out how much RAM is available. It will give you several numbers. Write these down.

2) Look to see if "config.sys" or "autoexec.bat" exist. Save copies of them before you make any changes.

3) Make a boot floppy (or CD) if you don't already have one before you make any changes. It is possible to make configuration changes that will lock up the computer on boot. The only way to rescue it from this condition is to boot from floppy (or CD) and change the configuration files on the hard drive back to what they were.

4) It was quite common for samples of "config.sys" and "autoexec.bat" to be provided with MS-DOS which loaded all sorts of unnecessary garbage which took up RAM. Go through both files and start getting rid of anything that you don't think you need (e.g. mouse drivers, CD-ROM drivers, etc.).

5) Reboot your computer, and run the "mem" command again to see how much difference the changes made.

6) See if your software runs. Repeat the above steps as necessary.

7) If the "config.sys" or "autoexec.bat" *don't* exist, then you will need to create them (or at least the "config.sys") and start to add commands which load parts of MS-DOS into high memory.

Let us know if you can get it to work. Include the contents of the "config.sys" or "autoexec.bat" files in your post (they are just ASCII text), and the results of the "mem" command. It is hard to offer more advice than what is stated above without this information.

There is another version of DOS you can use called "FreeDOS". This is a GPL licensed equivalent to MS-DOS which you can download from "http://www.freedos.org/" This is an independently created legal version, and not something off a hacker board. I've used it in the past to support some old MS-DOS software, and it seems to work just fine.

 

You probably need to install one of the DOS memory extenders/expanders. Without them DOS can only make use of it's tiny (by today's standards) native address space. These were a particularly messy area of life with DOS.

Regards
cww

 

I still run Modsoft from time to time, and setup DOS machines for certain tasks. I can provide older DOS licenses and disks and setup the laptop. If you can't set it up by yourself, and want help, contact me [email protected] .

Regards,
James Fountas

 

Hi,
Forget Licenses, use FreeDos

I use it to run SLC500 (v8.15), Basic(v4.0) and dBase(III), it works a treat

http://www.freedos.org/

available as an iso image

marc

 

Dear friend.

I am reading with interest this correspondence as I need to install Modsoft 2.6 on my new laptop running Windows XP. The problem is that I do not have a copy of Modsoft 2.6 to install it. Can you guide me on how to get a copy of Modsoft 2.6.

Thanks for your assistance.
Charles Galea

 

In reply to Charles Galea: I think you would need to contact a Schneider (Telemechanique, Modicon, etc.) dealer for Modsoft software.

 

I am running Modsoft v2.6 on WinXP with no problems. I have a program that allows you to communicate to WinXP serial ports from Modsoft.

Sort of like a software NOE module; mbe_bridge allows Modsoft to use TCP/IP to localhost, then a the mbe_bridge program forwards these on to the serial port.

It is free to anyone that wants it.

If you are interested, e-mail me jeffadler at automationservicesco. com

 

How do I get Modsoft 2.6 to run under winxp? and can you send me the program to forward the serial port please

[email protected]

Thanks,
Steve

 

Dear Sir,

I have MODSOFT Version 2.21 and MBE_Bridge. I want to install at windows XP. please guide if any simple SOP is available for successful installation and running.

 

I prefer to setup a dual boot PC and choose to boot to DOS instead of windows when running Modsoft. I find it straight forward. The only thing worth noting is if you use MS DOS, you have to make your boot partition 2 GB or less. You can reach me at jf123 [@] fountas [.] net

Regards,
James

> I have MODSOFT Version 2.21 and MBE_Bridge. I want to install at
> windows XP. please guide if any simple SOP is available for
> successful installation and running.