DOS app always tries to start HIMEM.SYS and hangs

[Gregg Hill]

Hello!

I have a client with five Windows 2000 Pro workstations, all with the same
level of patches (SP4 and all Critical Updates). The application is on their
Windows Server 2003 file server (plus AD and Exchange 2003), and each
station has a shortcut to it via a mapped drive.

On three of them, their DOS application (CDS stock trading software) runs
fine. On one, each time I try to start it, it gives an error abour an
application trying to directly access hardware and denies the access. I
haven't looked into that one too much yet (not a high priority user). On the
remaining one, every time I double-click the shortcut, it opens a prompt,
shows the program name on the command line to start the program, then starts
to load HIMEM.SYS and hangs...the application. The shortcut is the same on
all the workstations.

Any idea why only one would try to start HIMEM.SYS?

Thanks for helping!

Gregg Hill

 

[Alan Illeman]

Hello!

I have a client with five Windows 2000 Pro workstations, all with the same
level of patches (SP4 and all Critical Updates). The application is on their
Windows Server 2003 file server (plus AD and Exchange 2003), and each
station has a shortcut to it via a mapped drive.

On three of them, their DOS application (CDS stock trading software) runs
fine. On one, each time I try to start it, it gives an error abour an
application trying to directly access hardware and denies the access. I
haven't looked into that one too much yet (not a high priority user). On the
remaining one, every time I double-click the shortcut, it opens a prompt,
shows the program name on the command line to start the program, then starts
to load HIMEM.SYS and hangs...the application. The shortcut is the same on
all the workstations.

Any idea why only one would try to start HIMEM.SYS?

Thanks for helping!

Gregg Hill

Does "mem /c" show himem loaded?

This is what it shows on my pc (Win2K pro sp.4 - no network):


Conventional Memory :

Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
------------- --------------------- -------------
MSDOS 12048 ( 11.8K) 2F10
KBD 3280 ( 3.2K) CD0
HIMEM 1248 ( 1.2K) 4E0
COMMAND 3600 ( 3.5K) E10
FREE 112 ( 0.1K) 70
FREE 634896 (620.0K) 9B010

Total FREE : 635008 (620.1K)

Upper Memory :

Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
------------- --------------------- -------------
SYSTEM 180208 (176.0K) 2BFF0
MOUSE 12528 ( 12.2K) 30F0
MSCDEXNT 464 ( 0.5K) 1D0
REDIR 2672 ( 2.6K) A70
DOSX 34848 ( 34.0K) 8820
FREE 784 ( 0.8K) 310
FREE 96032 ( 93.8K) 17720

Total FREE : 96816 ( 94.5K)

Total bytes available to programs (Conventional+Upper) : 731824
(714.7K)
Largest executable program size : 634096
(619.2K)
Largest available upper memory block : 96032 (
93.8K)

1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

 

[Jason Hall [MSFT]]

--------------------

Reply-To: "Gregg Hill" <[email protected]>
From: "Gregg Hill" <[email protected]>
Subject: DOS app always tries to start HIMEM.SYS and hangs
Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 20:33:12 -0700

Hello!

I have a client with five Windows 2000 Pro workstations, all with the same
level of patches (SP4 and all Critical Updates). The application is on their
Windows Server 2003 file server (plus AD and Exchange 2003), and each
station has a shortcut to it via a mapped drive.

On three of them, their DOS application (CDS stock trading software) runs
fine. On one, each time I try to start it, it gives an error abour an
application trying to directly access hardware and denies the access. I
haven't looked into that one too much yet (not a high priority user). On the
remaining one, every time I double-click the shortcut, it opens a prompt,
shows the program name on the command line to start the program, then starts
to load HIMEM.SYS and hangs...the application. The shortcut is the same on
all the workstations.

Any idea why only one would try to start HIMEM.SYS?

Thanks for helping!

Gregg Hill

---------------------

Whenever a legacy application has problems running in Windows 2000 / 2003 /
XP, the first
troubleshooting step should be to run it in Compatibilty Mode:

On Windows 2000:
================
1. Ensure that you have Service Pack 4 installed
2. Start > Run > regsvr32 c:\WINNT\AppPatch\slayerui.dll
3. Right-click on the executable and click Properties
4. Click on the Compatibility tab, and choose to run the app in Windows 95
Compatibility Layer

On Windows XP:
================
1. Right-click on the executable and click Properties
2. Click on the Compatibility tab, and choose to run the app in Windows 95
Compatibility Mode

If you wish to roll-out the individual compatibility fix(es) necessary to
allow your application to
function normally, see the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/compatible/appcompat.mspx


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