[SOLVED] DESQview/X causes hard reset under PCem v9 r285

[ppgrainbow]

Does anyone have a problem trying to install and run DESQview/X under PCem v9 r285? The product from the defunct company Quarterdeck Systems used to work on PCem v8.1 as well as the latest versions of the MAME arcade and console emulator.

Anyways, I have a problem when attempting to install DESQview/X under PCem v9 r285. After the installation tries to build the menu system, PCem hard reset causing the installation to not complete successfully. When I even attempt to run DESQview/X by typing DVX or setting running SETUP at the MS-DOS command prompt, PCEM hard resets as well.

I bet that you're unaware of this, but is there a way to the bug that causes a reboot instead of either a successful installation of DESQview/X or running the programme from the DOS prompt?

I'm currently running this on the AMI WinBIOS 486 ROM (80486DX 50MHz) with 16 MB memory and a Trident TGUI 9440 graphics card with 1 MB VRAM.


Update 1: I'm afraid that I have a bigger problem with QEMM, the expanded memory manager from Quarterdeck. When I try to play *ANY* software that use the 32-bit DOS extender DOS4GX, such as The Need for Speed, Grand Prix 2 and even VGA Paint 386, the emulated PC ends up rebooting by itself.

I either bet it is either the QEMM memory manager or a bug in the PCem emulation itself. Right now, I have not tested QEMM and any 32-bit DOS4GX-based software under VMware Player or VirtualBox. I'm hoping it gets fixed as well.

Update 2: Updated forum post to current revision of PCem that I'm currently using right now.

[SarahWalker]

QEMM doesn't run on v9. I fixed it last night, in rev 290. DESQview has/had the same issue, I haven't tested DESQview/X yet.

[ppgrainbow]

QEMM doesn't run on v9. I fixed it last night, in rev 290. DESQview has/had the same issue, I haven't tested DESQview/X yet.

Thank you for telling me. QEMM did run on v8.1 though. I suspect that one of the reason why QEMM didn't run is the REP instructions in 32-bit mode with both 0x66 and 0x67 wasn't working correctly and I'm glad that it's fixed now.

In any event that I update PCem v9 to rev 290 and test DESQview/X whatever it works or not and get back to you.

[SarahWalker]

DESQview/X is still broken unfortunately.

[SarahWalker]

Now working in rev 291.

[ppgrainbow]

Now working in rev 291.

Thank you so much for fixing this bug! I deeply appreciate it!

Update: I got DESQview/X working in higher resolutions! To get it to work, I had to manually edit the DVX.CFG file in the C:\DVX directory with the following:

Code: Select all

client   dwm,backdrop
type     VG8
dispsize 240x180
font     misc,75dpi,atm
bs       on
ss       15x60
keyboard kbdus.txt
keyrate 30x250
cursor   132
codepage 437
set      b
unset    ghmsxv8

In the DVX.CFG file, I had to change the "type" variable from S3 to VG8 (VESA), which will allow DESQview/X to operate at higher resolutions using the VESA 1.2 BIOS extension.

The S3 driver (for the S3 Trio64 compatible display adapters) doesn't work properly under DESQview/X as it exhibits font display corruption:

DESQview/X font display corruption using the S3 Trio64 compatible display adapter (Number Nine FX).

Font Corruption.png (94.61 KiB) Viewed 5796 times

Other than the font display corruption issue, I'm very happy how Desqview/X operates correctly.