DOS ain't dead

Two weeks ago I tried the SHSCUCDX and UIDE/Jr drivers on my older PC, but unfortunately they didn't work.
My HW configuration is:
Processor: Intel Pentium 200 MHz MMX (P55C)
RAM: 128 MB
HDD: Transcend SSD 16GB IDE (set in BIOS: Size: 16007M, Cyls: 1964, Head: 255, Precomp: 0, Landz: 31027, Sector: 63, Mode: LBA)
CD-RW: Plextor PlexWriter Premium II
DVD-ROM: LG HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8164B

OS: MS-DOS 6.22
config.sys:
shell=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos /E:512 /P
device=c:\dos\himem.sys /testmem:off
dos=high
device=c:\dos\emm386.exe verbose noems notr
dos=umb
buffers=11,0
files=30
fcbs=1,0
stacks=0,0
lastdrive=f
rem devicehigh=c:\cdrom.sys /D:Plextor /D:LG
devicehigh=c:\uide.sys /N1 /UX /S40 /D:Plextor /D:LG
rem devicehigh=c:\uidejr.sys /N1 /UX /D:Plextor /D:LG

autoexec.bat:
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
PATH c:\;c:\DOS;c:\mouse
ctmouse
rem lh c:\dos\mscdex.exe /D:Plextor /D:LG
shcdx33d /D:Plextor /D:LG

When I turn on the PC and look at the screen, after "execution" of the drivers mentioned above following messages are displayed:
UIDE, 9-07-2009. 40-MB Cache, CD/DVD name is LG.
IDE0 Controller at I-O address F000h, Chip I.D. 80867010h.
CD0: IDE0 Secondary-master, Plextor CD-R Premium2, PIO.
CD1: IDE0 Secondary-slave, HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8164B, PIO.

SHCDX33D, 30-May-2009. Based on V.3.03 SHSUCDX by Jason Hood and
V1.4b SHSUCDX by John H. McCoy, Sam Houston State University.

Cannot open CD driver PLEXTOR. SHCDX33D cannot load!

When I try to use an old not much efficient cdrom.sys and memory hungry mscdex.exe, after turn on the PC I see this on the screen:
IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM Device Driver Version 2.11 17:30:39 06/07/96
CD-ROM drive #0 found on 170h port master device, v1.01
CD-ROM drive #1 found on 170h port slave device, v0L06

Device driver not found : 'PLEXTOR'.
MSCDEX Version 2.23
Copyright ...
Drive D: = Driver LG unit 0
Drive E: = Driver LG unit 1

and the drives are activated.
When I tried the combination cdrom.sys+SHSUCDX and UIDE+MSCDEX, it didn't work as well.
I assume that the drivers from Mr. Ellis and MSCDEX think of HDD(SSD) as a CD-ROM drive.
Does somebody have a solution or any idea, how to fix the UIDE and SHSUCDX?

> rem devicehigh=c:\cdrom.sys /D:Plextor /D:LG
> devicehigh=c:\uide.sys /N1 /UX /S40 /D:Plextor /D:LG
> rem devicehigh=c:\uidejr.sys /N1 /UX /D:Plextor /D:LG

Are you sure, that these drivers really accept multiple occurences of "/D"?
Why do you need two different names at all?

> UIDE, 9-07-2009. 40-MB Cache, CD/DVD name is LG.

So UIDE ignored "/D:Plextor".

> SHCDX33D, 30-May-2009. Based on V.3.03 SHSUCDX by Jason Hood and
> V1.4b SHSUCDX by John H. McCoy, Sam Houston State University.
>
> Cannot open CD driver PLEXTOR. SHCDX33D cannot load!

This is probably an aftereffect.

> When I try to use an old not much efficient cdrom.sys and memory hungry
> mscdex.exe, after turn on the PC I see this on the screen:
> IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM Device Driver Version 2.11 17:30:39 06/07/96
> CD-ROM drive #0 found on 170h port master device, v1.01
> CD-ROM drive #1 found on 170h port slave device, v0L06

This looks like an old version of the VIDE-CDD driver by BenQ / Acer Peripherals.

---
Forum admin

> devicehigh=c:\uide.sys /N1 /UX /S40 /D:Plextor /D:LG

Perhaps it's case sensitive; try PLEXTOR?

Usually, you don't need to specify the /D: switch twice on the command line -- you only need to specify one device name (for example, /D:MYCDDVDS), even if you have two physical drives, as each CD and DVD drive is treated as a separate unit within the UIDE driver -- they don't need to be separately named. UIDE will use /D:UDVD1 as the default device name, so the /D: option is not even needed in the UIDE command line... as long as /D:UDVD1 is used in the SHSUCDX command line. The /D: device name is only used to allow SHSUCDX to communicate with UIDE -- so just make sure the /D: device name matches exactly on each command line.

Other comments:

/N1 turns off hard-drive handling by UIDE. Do you want to do this? (And just use UIDE for the CD and DVD drives?)

/UX turns off Ultra-DMA. The switch is usually not needed, as UIDE can itself determine if drive supports UDMA -- and if the drive can't, then UIDE will automatically use PIO mode. This switch is mainly for a few odd drives.

If you're using UIDE.SYS, why are you using HIMEM.SYS instead of XMGR.SYS? XMGR.SYS and UIDE.SYS were built to work together!

- Doug B.

> /N1 turns off hard-drive handling by UIDE. Do you want to do this? (And
> just use UIDE for the CD and DVD drives?)
>
> /UX turns off Ultra-DMA. The switch is usually not needed, as UIDE can
> itself determine if drive supports UDMA -- and if the drive can't, then
> UIDE will automatically use PIO mode. This switch is mainly for a few odd
> drives.

Agreed. You shouldn't use these switches unless you know what they do and need them.

> If you're using UIDE.SYS, why are you using HIMEM.SYS instead of XMGR.SYS?
> XMGR.SYS and UIDE.SYS were built to work together!

But it's no requirement, UIDE.SYS works with other XMS drivers as well.

---
l

> > rem devicehigh=c:\cdrom.sys /D:Plextor /D:LG
> > devicehigh=c:\uide.sys /N1 /UX /S40 /D:Plextor /D:LG
> > rem devicehigh=c:\uidejr.sys /N1 /UX /D:Plextor /D:LG
>
> Are you sure, that these drivers really accept multiple occurences of
> "/D"?

It doesn't make sense, and as Robert observed, UIDE simply overwrites the name with the last occurance. (It could show an error message, but I prefer the current behaviour.)

> > SHCDX33D, 30-May-2009. Based on V.3.03 SHSUCDX by Jason Hood and
> > V1.4b SHSUCDX by John H. McCoy, Sam Houston State University.
> >
> > Cannot open CD driver PLEXTOR. SHCDX33D cannot load!
>
> This is probably an aftereffect.

It certainly is one. To fix this, either remove "/D:Plextor" from SHSUCDX's command line, or replace it with "/D:?Plextor". This installs drives for a device driver named "PLEXTOR" if there's any, but still installs drives other device drivers if there's no "PLEXTOR" driver. (Read the SHSUCDX documentation for information about its switches.)

---
l

I received this message from Jack:
Re: this topic, the comments by RR/Christian/Doug are
all correct: (A) UIDE assigns only one "device name"
to its CD/DVD drives, the last one specified, and (B)
its /N1 and /UX switches are special-purpose only and
are not usually needed. I was unaware that SHCDX33E
will not load without all drivers, as I never load it
using multiple names, but if Jason Hood wrote it this
way, so be it. Also, UIDE "does not care" which XMS
driver is used: XMGR offers special logic for direct
loading into UMBPCI upper-memory but Japheth's HIMEMX
or MS-DOS HIMEM can be used. I would prefer XMGR or
HIMEMX and JEMM386, not MS-DOS HIMEM/EMM386 which are
old, HUGE, have unfixed "bugs" and cannot handle over
64-MB of XMS (only the later "Win95/98" HIMEMs did).

The UIDE displays from Vehudis's system show UIDE did
detect his CD/DVD drives, and the only problem is the
"extra" driver name. If only "Plextor" or "LG", not
both, is used, his system should be fine. I am also
curious if, with no /UX switch, UIDE notes the CD/DVD
drives can use ATA-33 or ATA-66 UltraDMA (a few newer
Plextor drives have ATA-66!) and so work MUCH faster!

Finally, even with only 128-MB of memory, I would use
at least /S80 for an 80-MB cache if this is possible.
UIDE has a "least recently used" caching scheme, so a
big data file may cause "old" directory sectors to be
thrown out, which slows-down the cache when directory
data must be input again. A 40-MB cache is tiny for
today's systems using "God AWFUL!" Gates & Co. files!
80-MB will help, and I recommend using as BIG a cache
as one can, up to 2-GB on systems having 4-GB memory!

---
Forum admin

The problem is solved. It was really due to two device names stated with/after uide.sys. I wanted (partially thought, that I have) to give each drive a name.
At present I use himem (from Win98) instead of XMGR, because once I had a problem with running of an aplication.
I have to use the /S40 switch because without him I was getting the error message "XMS init error" (maybe himem is the trespasser).
Thank you everybody for help.

> The problem is solved. It was really due to two device names stated
> with/after uide.sys. I wanted (partially thought, that I have) to give
> each drive a name.
> At present I use himem (from Win98) instead of XMGR, because once I had a
> problem with running of an aplication.
> I have to use the /S40 switch because without him I was getting the error
> message "XMS init error" (maybe himem is the trespasser).

There's another mail from Jack:
Vehudis,

I am happy UIDE and SHCDX33E now work for you, at least in part.

My XMGR driver did have error return-code problems, which were corrected
in 2007 as I recall. If you first tried it then, do try my latest XMGR
with your applications again. Hopefully, they will work better.

If UIDE runs with /S40 but shows "XMS init error!" with /S80, your HIMEM
likely does not support over 64-MB of XMS. If not XMGR, do try HIMEMX
from <www.japheth.de> and see if HIMEMX will give you 80-MB for a cache.

Any further comments, please feel free to E-Mail me directly at --

mezukoylian@sprynet.com

Jack R. Ellis

---
Forum admin