Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!news From: smsmith@hpuxa.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stephen M. Smith) Subject: Re: hard 80386 questions Message-ID: <1991Mar29.225053.25698@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> Keywords: 80386 (80286) Sender: news@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: hpuxa.acs.ohio-state.edu Organization: The Ohio State University Distribution: na Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1991 22:50:53 GMT Lines: 104 feg@moss.ATT.COM (Forrest Gehrke) writes: > >You did not answer another question of the original poster which also >puzzles me: I happen to have a Micronics ascic motherboard and supplied >with it is their software called SETSYS. With this I can set three >different bus speeds as well as turn on shadow ram of the bios. >Software tests with shadow ram show significantly higher write speed >to the screen. However, with my Diamond controller of the >non-interlaced monitor is supplied software called FASTBIOS. The >manual explains that this is the same as shadow ram. However, >tests show that crt write speed is nearly double the rate of >the SETSYS shadow ram bios. Obviously, something is different and I >am wondering if somewhow the memory cache (I have 64kb of sram) >is now getting into the act? But, this raises the question >why the SETSYS shadow ram doesn't. I have the Micronics ASIC board too. I'm posting this because if there are any Micronics users out there I want to spare them some headaches, especially if they are using SETSYS!!! Please note that I have the 386-33 MB, though I think all the 386 Micronics motherboards have the same dip switch settings and SETSYS ustilities (I suspect this to be the case because my MB manual is for all the ASIC boards; ASIC, BTW, simply means it has memory cache.) First of all, when switch 4 is enabled, the system BIOS is shadowed to F000-FFFF and the video BIOS is shadowed to C000-C800. This is the way most clones do it. BUT, the motherboard manual when talking about BIOS shadowing refers to 128k of ROM that is used in the shadowing process. THIS IS WRONG. Only 64k gets shadowed. This is important, because if you use an EMM like QEMM which puts the 64k page frame at D000-DFFF, SETSYS will show "PAGE FRAME" in its setup screen under SHADOW BIOS instead of saying "ENABLED", and it will give a warning message saying something like "page frame address cannot be in D000 segment; check your EMM manual to switch the address of the page frame." The solution is to move the page frame to C800-CFFF. This makes SETSYS happy, and you can then turn cache on and off, set the system speed up or down, and turn the BIOS shadowing on and off with SETSYS without any problems. Another warning about SETSYS--I called my computer company, and they said that Micronics discontinued using SETSYS because it had some problems. Instead of using SETSYS, the latest version of the BIOS (Phoenix version M11) uses a hotkey combination on the keyboard to disable/enable the memory cache, and to set the system speed up or down. Here's the combinations: CTRL-ALT-ESC: enter CMOS setup CTRL-ALT-minus sign (numeric keypad): lower system speed (turbo button needs to be OUT to do this) CTRL-ALT-plus sign (numeric keypad): system speed set to fast CTRL-ALT-SHFT-minus sign (numeric keypad): disable memory cache CTRL-ALT-SHFT-plus sign (numeric keybad): enable memory cache WARNING: These hotkey combinations do NOT work when an extended memory manager like QEMM is in use!!! (You don't know how many hours I spent on the phone with Micronics and with my computer company trying to figure all this out!) Since these hotkeys don't work with QEMM loaded, what I have to do is use SETSYS which works fine--just as long as I have my HARDWARE doing the shadowing (switch 4 enabled, in other words), instead of using the ROM parameter in QEMM. Also, I have to put the parameters FR=C800 to move the page frame, and NRH so that the entire 64k of ROM is untouched (otherwise QEMM blows it by using 16k for itself-- this also caused me problems!). Now, as to your observations about various video speeds with different configurations: I too have noticed this. The video shadowing file that came with my Orchid II is called SPEED_UP.SYS. When I load this file in my config.sys file without QEMM loaded (hence, in low memory) I get TWICE THE SPEED THAT I OTHERWISE GET!!! And if I disable my memory cache the speed is reduced to HALF of what it used to be. Here's a summary of different configurations: QEMM loaded, hardware shadowing, cache on: ~15,000 CPS QEMM loaded, hardware shadowing, cache off: ~8,000 CPS QEMM loaded, hardware shadowing, SPEED_UP.SYS loaded high: ~19,000 CPS QEMM loaded, hardware shadowing, SPEED_UP.SYS loaded low: ~19,000 CPS QEMM not loaded, hardware shadowing, SPEED_UP.SYS loaded: ~32,000 CPS I know it sounds redundant to have hardware shadowing on, and THEN to load SPEED_UP.SYS on top of that, but it's kind of hard to switch motherboard switches... and anyway, I've tried ALL configurations--both with the hardware shadowing on and with it off. And yes... I've tried using QEMM's ROM parameter to shadow the BIOS, and I still can't get more than ~19,000 CPS. In summary: I can't get the video speed I would like with QEMM loaded. When Microsoft's HIMEM.SYS is loaded I CAN get the amazing 32,000 CPS, but only when SPEED_UP.SYS is loaded low. So what's going on here? >Forrest Gehrke feg@dodger.att.com Stephen M. Smith \ + / ,,@ ircc.ohio-state. \ + / {7%*@,..":27g)-=,#*:.#,/6&1*.4-,l@#9:-) " edu> \ + / BTW, WYSInaWYG \ + / --witty.saying.ARC