Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!ists!yunexus!maccs!cs4g6ag
From: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Need help on PCs ( memory, printers )
Message-ID: <25CF29CA.14182@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 6 Feb 90 19:47:22 GMT
References: <2865@isis.UUCP>
Reply-To: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Lines: 23

In article <2865@isis.UUCP> dpunjabi@isis.UUCP (Dinesh Punjabi) writes:
$I have recently purchased a 386/25 system via mail order. 
$The machine is supposed to contain 1 MB of main memory but when I run 
$Norton tests it just reports 640 KBytes. How do I verify that the 
$remaining memory exists in the PC and that it is being utilized by DOS ??

   If you really want to check to see if DOS is using more than 640K,
try CHKDSK.  But you'll find it isn't.  Virtually no machines these
days give you more than 640K for DOS - in fact, if you're using VGA,
there's no way you can get more than 640K contiguous memory.

   Your other 384K may be used for BIOS shadowing, or it may be present
just above the 1M boundary.  I take it the manual is useless and doesn't
tell you anything, so try experimenting - try to configure RAMDRIVE.SYS
or VDISK.SYS to use some extended memory and see if it works.  Or try
to use one of the EMS emulators for the 386 and see if it works.  Be
creative.

-- 
Stephen M. Dunn                               cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
          <std_disclaimer.h> = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n";
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       "I want to look at life - In the available light" - Neil Peart