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- ID:X2 Discussion of DV.EXE vs. XDV.COM
- Quarterdeck Technical Note
- by Dan Sallitt
-
- XDV.COM, which is sometimes renamed to DV.COM as recommended in
- Quarterdeck's documentation, is a loader that places bits of
- DESQview code in high memory areas. It is useful on any system
- that has expanded memory, or on any system that has extended
- memory and is using DESQview's QEXT.SYS driver. If DESQview
- loads successfully when started with the DV.EXE file but not when
- started with XDV.COM or DV.COM, there are two likely
- possibilities:
-
- 1) The system's expanded memory manager (EMM) has allowed
- DESQview to place a piece of its code in an area between 640K and
- 1024K (known as the reserved memory area) that is already being
- used by hardware in the system;
-
- 2) QEXT.SYS is conflicting with another program that is using the
- first 64K of extended memory.
-
- In the first case, one must determine which part of the area
- between 640K and 1034K is in conflict, then exclude it using the
- expanded memory manager's parameters. If you know the hardware
- in the system, you should consult the manuals (or the
- manufacturers) of the expansion boards in the machine to
- determine the addresses that are being used for ROM extensions,
- buffers, etc.
-
- Failing this, you should use the /X parameter to XDV.COM to
- exclude different areas of reserved memory, making the exclusions
- smller and smaller until the conflict is pinpointed. Like most
- memory managers, XDV.COM takes hexadecimal addresses; in
- hexadecimal, the range A000-FFFF represents the addresses between
- 640K and 1024K. Thus the command line
-
- XDV /X:A000-FFFF
-
- prevents DESQview from putting its code anywhere between 640K and
- 1024K.
-
- XDV /X:A000-CFFF
-
- excludes the first half of this area, and
-
- XDV /X:D000-FFFF
-
- excludes the second half.
-
- All the possible 16K areas that can be excluded on XDV.COM are
- listed below.
-
- A000-A3FF A400-A7FF A800-ABFF AC00-AFFF
- B000-B3FF B400-B7FF B800-BBFF BC00-BFFF
- C000-C3FF C400-C7FF C800-CBFF CC00-CFFF
- D000-D3FF D400-D7FF D800-DBFF DC00-DFFF
- E000-E3FF E400-E7FF E800-EBFF EC00-EFFF
- F000-F3FF F400-F7FF F800-FBFF FC00-FFFF
-
- To exclude a number of these consecutive ranges, use the
- endpoints of the first and last block that you want to exclude.
- For instance:
-
- XDV /X:A000-ABFF
-
- excludes the first three 16K areas above 640K.
-
- To determine if QEXT.SYS is in conflict with anything in the
- system, use this special exclusion on XDV:
-
- XDV /X:FFFE
-
- Since the Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager-386 (QEMM-386) and
- other expanded memory managers for 80386 machines allow DESQview
- to place code in the QEXT area without the actual presence of the
- QEXT.SYS driver, this exclusion should be tried when
- troubleshooting 80386 machines in general.
-
- If the /X:FFFE exclusion eliminates the problem, look in the
- CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files for drivers or terminate-and-
- stay-resident programs that may be using extended memory. If a
- program is in conflict with QEXT.SYS, the program may take
- parameters that will prevent it from using the addresses between
- 1024K and 1088K, which QEXT.SYS must use.
-
- Copyright (C) 1990 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
- * * * E N D O F F I L E * * *