Another one that didn't get thru.
My apologies if they are just delayed and this causes duplication:(
I wrote:
>
> Ok, Arachne worked, so I exited and tried SPEEDCHK to see what TSX was
> doing as far as diskcaching is concerned.
> SPEEDCHK under TSX took 59 sec to run the main test which took 29 sec before.
> DOS 6.2 was obviously being used because it still took 10 sec additional to
> clean up after the test. This also takes 10-11 sec under straight DOS 6.2
> but only 2-3 sec under DOS 5.0.
>
> It is possible that those numbers under TSX may improve if I use special
> config and autoexec boot files for TSX to try to set files and buffers.
>
> Generally, my impression is, bigger and slower with no advantage but,
> More later. ;)
Now it is a day later and this time I loaded TSX on my workhorse 33Mhz '486
at my office. At this location I use DOS 3.3 and QEMM exclusively and most
of the time I use Hercules (white MDA) giving me low memory available of
672000 bytes (that's not a typo - 672,000 bytes) with an incredible truckload
of crap loaded high.
I have to say it installed easily again after I organized a couple of
partitions on my HD (C: and F:) to create some space.
This time I wrote a batch file to start TSX by switching in new config.sys
and autoexec.bat and re-booting. Those new boot files were the same as my
normal ones except QEMM references were removed as well as my PC-cache and
ALL loadhi commands were changed to normal loads.
TSX booted up fine to the nag screen in MDA and when I hit enter to proceed
the screen went blank, but I could still generate disk activity by typing
commands blindly. It appears that although the docs say TSX supports BOTH
VGA and MDA, the morons (just guessing) switch to VGA after the nag screen
whether you like it or not.:((
Ok, rebooted to DOS and modified the TSX autoexec.bat to bring me up in VGA.
Tried again, and all worked well - I got something on the screen.
Loaded DOS, logged onto C: and tried chkdsk. No problem. No files reported
as crosslinked with DOS 3.3. Available memory reported as 636688 bytes.
Tried QEMM's MFT (Manifest) to get a view of the current system.
MFT said DOS was using 17k low memory which included:
100 files !! (I had asked for 30)
1334 buffers !! (I had asked for 15) **The total buffer count was *2000**!!
1008 bytes environment space - (I had asked for 512)
It said the HMA did not exist, I had a page frame and a lot of space in
what would normally be the upper memory area, and plenty of XMS.
And 622kb free low mem. I don't think any of my goodies were loaded.
There was something functioning like CED (Doskey to most) but it was
probably provide by TSX.
My prompt was NOT my prompt. Quickeys wasn't quick.
On to the BIG test.
SPEEDCHK took 1 min 10 sec to run the test and 9 sec to clean up in TSX.
It wouldn't allow a software reset so I pushed the button and booted to DOS.
SPEEDCHK took 32 sec to run the test and 1 sec to clean up in DOS.
Maybe this is why I never heard of it before ?
I'll keep playing to see if something can be done to speed it up, but even
the DIR list seems slow. Text screens load about 1/2 as fast as in pure DOS.
:(
- Clarence Verge
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