Load High Issues with WFWG & EMM386, 386MAX, QEMM, or Stealth

• Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.1

The following article contains information on the use of Windows for Workgroups with third-party products or configurations that have not been tested and are not supported by Microsoft.

If the steps or procedures described in this article do not function properly, contact the manufacturer of the third-party product for more information or use a supported configuration.

SUMMARY

This article discusses the use of the following upper memory block (UMB) managers with Windows for Workgroups (WFWG):

• EMM386.EXE
• Qualitas' 386MAX
• BlueMax
• QuarterDeck's QEMM

Most of the UMB manager issues that apply to Windows 3.1 also apply to Windows for Workgroups and are documented in the Knowledge Base. This article addresses the following issues that relate specifically to Windows for Workgroups:

• Excluding the Network Card UMB Memory Area
• Reconfiguring the Device Driver and TSR Loading (the system stops responding at startup)
• Using Stealth with QEMM
• Using VGASWAP with 386MAX
• Mixing Load High Methods

MORE INFORMATION

Excluding the Network Card UMB Memory Area

Most net cards use some address space in the UMB. You may need to exclude this address range so the UMB manager does not overwrite a device driver or Terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) program. You can use Microsoft Diagnostics to determine what address range your network card uses, or consult your network card documentation. To determine how to exclude a memory range, consult your UMB manager documentation. To exclude a memory range using EMM386.EXE, add the following parameter to the DEVICE= line in your CONFIG.SYS file (where yyyy-zzzz indicates the address range):

    x=yyyy-zzzz

QEMM and 386MAX place device drivers and TSRs into predetermined memory areas using memory optimization programs. If an Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) page frame is present, these programs can also borrow memory from the EMS page frame to load some device drivers and TSRs. Windows for Workgroups device drivers load themselves into free UMB space. This can cause conflicts with QEMM's and 386MAX's optimization programs resulting in a system that stops responding (hangs) at system startup.

To recover from this situation you must start the system from an MS-DOS startup (boot) disk, edit your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to remove all load high commands.

Using Stealth with QEMM

QuaterDeck's Stealth option for QEMM in implemented as ST:x on the QEMM load line in the CONFIG.SYS file, where x is an single letter parameter. Stealth is unsupported with Windows for Workgroups.

Using VGASWAP with 386MAX

VGASWAP is a 386MAX parameter. This parameter relocates ROM into portions of the memory region usually reserved for VGA memory. This parameter is unsupported by Windows for Workgroups but generally is safe to use. The know limitation is that the network card UMB memory area cannot be mapped to the area made available by VGASWAP. The network card needs to be configured so it uses another area.

Mixing Load High Methods

Microsoft does not support mixing load high methods. You should either use 386MAX, BlueMAX, EMM386.EXE or QEMM. Mixing 386MAX, BlueMAX or QEMM with the MS-DOS LOADHIGH command is not supported.