I'm trying to run an old DOS application on a newer computer, but some of the text appears to be jumbled when I try it on a P4 machine. Works fine on a P3 and P2, but I'd like it to run on the P4.

I'm new here, and for some reason the image URL didn't show up, so here it is again:

http://mars.mediacatch.com/~andreyf/memorypharma/jumbles.png

What could be causing this? What are possible solutions?

Awful picture, the points to look at are memory allocation, IRQ assingments ectetc in BIOS.

Also you sate W98/DOS6.2, is this really STANDALONE DOS or W98 MS-DOS prompt? can you list how your hard drive is partitioned etcetc.........

http://www.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/15747.html

The image is there, but the default setting in 'MyComputing.Net' is "images off" - you may adjust your own forum settings accordingly.

Can't help with your issue - other than the obvious suggestion - use older machines for older software

Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid. -John Wayne

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It does seem it is an old program run in a MS-DOS Prompt:

"This forum is for all Standalone versions of DOS, not the "DOS" prompt contained inside later versions of Windows."

Quite agree JBOY it is better to run software in the correct environment.

Thank you for the quick responses, and my appologies for the lack of clarity:

I've tried running the application in both standalone DOS 6.22 (booted off a flopy) and the DOS prompt in Win98. Neither works.

I have one 2047MB FAT32 partition on a 40GB drive.

I've tried this on several P4, P3, and P2 machines, with DOS, NT, and XP and the pattern seems pretty clear: it always works on P3's and P2's, and never on P4's (OS doesn't matter much).

Then again, these are all Dell machines, so it may have something to do with memory, also...

Either way, here's another picture - most text shows, except the graph titles.

Is this a program you have the source for and if so, have you tried recompiling on the machine in question? I know that this doesn't sound like it should make sense but believe me, whithout getting into the nuts and bolts of it, it does make a difference.

John W. Borelli
IT Specialist
Hawkeye Security

Link to my email address

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"2047MB FAT32"

MS-DOS 6.22 does not recognise FAT32.....

Has to do with the video card.

Rule #1 Good computers don't go down.
Rule #2 There is no such thing as a good computer.

borelli35: no, I do not have the source, however, I will contacting the manufacturer and ask them to recompile if other suggestions don't work

-- hiho --
"2047MB FAT32"
MS-DOS 6.22 does not recognise FAT32.....
-- ---- --

Is that so? I booted from the A:, switched to C: (FAT32), and was able to run the program fine. I suppose it may be DOS 7.1 then, I'll check first thing when I get into work tomorrow.

-- Rick McNabb --
Has to do with the video card.
--- ---- ---- ---

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll swap it out for an older one as soon as I figure out what version of DOS I'm running. :)

"This forum is for all Standalone versions of DOS, not the "DOS" prompt contained inside later versions of Windows."

It may be preferable to post in the W98SE forum as per above quote from the POSTING HEADER, as you obviosly do not have STANDALONE DOS.

-- hiho --
"This forum is for all Standalone versions of DOS, not the "DOS" prompt contained inside later versions of Windows."

It may be preferable to post in the W98SE forum as per above quote from the POSTING HEADER, as you obviosly do not have STANDALONE DOS.
-- --- --

As I said earlier, I've tried it in both Standalone DOS and Win98SE, I also tried it in WinNT, WinXP Pro, and Win2000. Regardless of operating system, it works only on Dell's P2 and P3 machines.

The reason I posted in the Standalone DOS part of the forum (even though the variable that makes or breaks it seems to be the processor, not th OS) is becuase the program was written and designed for standalone DOS, not Windows. However, it doesn't work as long as the machine is a Dell P4.

"I've tried it in both Standalone DOS "

a W98SE boot disk is not standalone dos per-se as it does not have the neccessary files to alter memory requirements etcetcetcetcetc

XP & W2K The NT family has never seen MS-DOS except in NTVDM emulation.

hiho: thanks for the explanation. I'm pretty sure I was using Standalone DOS, though (I made the boot disk from DOS 6.22 running on a virtual machine)

--- Rick McNabb ---
Has to do with the video card.
--- --- --- --- ---
I swapped in a new one just now, and everything's working! Thanks for the suggestion, I guess it wasn't the CPU after all, but the video cards Dell puts in the newer machines.

Thanks for all the awesome help, guys!

Yep, some video cards will not handle all the "older modes" that legacy progs require. In other words they cutting corners to be cheap. Can you post the manufacturer, chipset of the video cards you have used (good and bad)?

Could be useful info for people trying to run legacy programs.

Rule #1 Good computers don't go down.
Rule #2 There is no such thing as a good computer.