China DOS Union

Author Jack thanks netizen jmcarl for suggesting the concept of eliminating diskette catcher, so QDMA is improved. In the future, just add /N in QDBOOT.SYS to save more memory!

**V2.2 fixed a bug in XMS movement

http://johnson.tmfc.net/dos/qdma.html


[ Last edited by johnsonlam on 2006-5-17 at 23:58 ]

I used QDMA V2.1 to load and couldn't start according to the instructions. Maxtor 6L080P0 (8mb) might be because the motherboard doesn't support ATA-133.

Originally posted by fastslz at 2006-5-17 07:24 PM:
I can't boot up by loading according to the instructions with QDMA V2.1. The Maxtor 6L080P0 (8mb) may be due to the mainboard not supporting ATA-133.

1) First download the new version

2) Use parameters to force at ATA-100 speed and see if it works

If the mainboard's BIOS has been around for a while, try to see if it can be upgraded

VMware can be supported, but it still doesn't support my computer; there's simply no way to use the forced parameters because the qdboot part can't be passed.

Can it be done in the normal way?

Example:

DEVICE=QHIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=UMBPCI.SYS NOEMS
DEVICEHIGH=QDMA.SYS /O /F /D
DEVICEHIGH=QCDROM.SYS /D:CDROM1 /UF

It seems that QHIMEM and UMBPCI will stay below 640K, but QDMA and QCDROM can be LOADHIGH. If it still freezes like this, please try upgrading the BIOS.

I have tried several PCs (including IBM eServer 206) without problems. Instead, most complaints are from users of AOpen, ASRock, ASUS motherboards. Which one are you using?

DEVICE=DOS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF /Q
REM DEVICE=DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
DEVICE=DOS\UMBPCI.SYS /S
REM DEVICE=DOS\XDMA.SYS /L
DEVICE=DOS\QDMA.SYS /O /D /F /L
DEVICEHIGH=DOS\QCDROM.SYS /D:IDE-CD01 /UF /L
REM DEVICE=DOS\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:IDE-CD02
SHELL=COMMAND.COM /F /E:640 /P
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FCBSHIGH=4,0
FILESHIGH=30
BUFFERSHIGH=20,0
STACKSHIGH=9,256
DEVICEHIGH=DOS\RAMDRIVE.SYS /E 6144
LASTDRIVE=Z

The mainboard is VIA's earliest P4X266-8233 PGA423, an antique-level mainboard from the DDR266 era. The BIOS is dated 2001/10/24, and there are no updates now. After all, this mainboard had low production volume. The performance of the mainboard is indeed good.

Let's try version 2.2 to see if it can start successfully. Also, QHIMEM.SYS didn't load successfully :(

After struggling for 2 hours, the following results are obtained:
DEVICE=DOS\QDMA.SYS /O /F /D successful
DEVICEHIGH=DOS\QDMA.SYS /O /F /D failed
DEVICE=DOS\QDMA.SYS /L successful
DEVICE=DOS\QDMA.SYS failed
Any parameter under HIGH case fails (upper memory is sufficient)
The above is tested under GRUB 0.97 CN boot, strangely, almost all succeed under pure DOS boot
Maybe there is a conflict with GRUB 0.97 CN, I don't know which QDMA.SYS is more suitable for old motherboards?

DEVICE=DOS\QDMA.SYS /O /F /D still doesn't work. It fails 6-7 times out of 10 starts. For now, still use XDMA.SYS

Originally posted by fastslz at 2006-5-23 11:12 PM:
After two hours of tinkering, the following results were obtained:
DEVICE=DOS\QDMA.SYS /O /F /D Successful
DEVICEHIGH=DOS\QDMA.SYS /O /F /D Failed
DEVICE=DOS\QDMA.SYS /L Successful
DEVICE=DOS\ ...

That is obviously due to poor DMA support from the motherboard or hard disk (mostly a motherboard issue). It is suggested that you do not load QDMA into UMB, and do not use /F (Fast DMA), as there may be conflicts. Loading into the 640K traditional memory only takes a few kilobytes anyway.

The problem with XDMA is that it is not compatible with QHIMEM and QCDROM. Use it with caution. If QDMA works, try not to use the old XDMA. Check if the fixes in QDMA since v1.0 affect you:

http://johnson.tmfc.net/dos/qdma.html


[ Last edited by johnsonlam on 2006-5-30 at 14:51 ]

Originally posted by fastslz at 2006-5-23 07:21 PM:
Try version 2.2 to see if it can start successfully
Also, QHIMEM.SYS failed to load :(

I missed this sentence, this is definitely a BIOS or chip issue, it is recommended that you use MEMTEST 386+ to check the memory, download link:

http://www.memtest.org

memtest is all in English and I haven't used it before and don't know how to use it. I checked with HWINFO and found no problems

Originally posted by fastslz at 2006-6-5 09:24 AM:
memtest is all in English and I've never used it or know how to use it. I checked with HWINFO and found no problems

Just make a floppy disk, put it in the floppy drive and boot up...
No need to look at English, if there's a problem detected on the screen, there will be a message.

HWINFO only detects hardware, it won't have detailed testing.

Thanks... Tested for 21 minutes with 2 rounds, memory is indeed okay.
Look at the screenshot.
Try QHIMEM2.5 later.

The configuration of config.sys is as follows:
DEVICE=\DOS\Himem.sys /testmem:off
DEVICE=\DOS\QDBOOT.SYS
DEVICE=\DOS\Umbpci.sys
DOS=high,umb,auto
DEVICEHIGH=\DOS\QDMA.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=\DOS\IFSHLP.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=\DOS\RAMDRIVE.SYS /e 5120 512 1024
DEVICEHIGH=\DOS\QCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
SHELL=COMMAND.COM /f /p

When booting, when executing either the line of qdboot.sys or QDMA.SYS (or only executing one of them), it will cause a system crash!
The mainboard is 815EP, and the hard disk is DiamondMax 120G

[ Last edited by ITU on 2006-6-12 at 22:38 ]

config.sys Configuration 1
SHELL=COMMAND.COM /E:640 /P /F
DEVICE=DOS\QHMBOOT.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=DOS\UMBPCI.SYS I=C800-EFFF NOEMS
DEVICEHIGH=DOS\QHIMEM.SYS /N48
DEVICE=DOS\QCDROM.SYS /D:IDE-CD01 /UF /L
FCBSHIGH=4,0
FILESHIGH=30
BUFFERSHIGH=20,0
STACKSHIGH=9,256
DEVICEHIGH=DOS\RAMDRIVE.SYS /E 6144
LASTDRIVE=Z
This configuration shows QHMBOOT V2.5, 6-04-2006, 32 XMS handles available and then freezes
After changing this configuration to DEVICE=DOS\QHIMEM.SYS /N48, it still shows QHMBOOT V2.5, 6-04-2006, 32 XMS handles available and then freezes

config.sys Configuration 2
DEVICE=DOS\UMBPCI.SYS I=C800-EFFF NOEMS
DEVICE=DOS\QHIMEM.SYS /N48
DEVICE=DOS\QCDROM.SYS /D:IDE-CD01 /UF /L
SHELL=COMMAND.COM /E:640 /P /F
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FCBSHIGH=4,0
FILESHIGH=30
BUFFERSHIGH=20,0
STACKSHIGH=9,256
DEVICEHIGH=DOS\RAMDRIVE.SYS /E 6144
LASTDRIVE=Z
This configuration shows QHIMEM V2.5, 6-04-2006, 48 XMS handles available and then freezes
Swapping the order of UMBPCI.SYS and QHIMEM.SYS or not adding parameters both cause freezing
Hope this information is helpful to you