Screen lock up running DOS program

[Guest]

Hi all, I'm running an old invoice package on a lap top using XP pro, the
menue's that run at full screen cause it to lock (no mouse or keyboard) This
program runs fine on my pc with XP.

Any ideas please?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

Probably a driver issue, most likely the graphics driver. I can't really
speak to why it runs on your other system, XP Home Edition and Pro are
identical except for the feature set, at the core they are the same.
Further this is a DOS application, if it has to make direct access to the
hardware, XP won't allow that. If your other system was an upgrade, it may
be taking advantage of DOS drivers loaded for the graphics card or some
legacy option that carried over from a 9x setup.

Also, laptops have somewhat different hardware and hardware requirements and
can be more finicky especially with regard to legacy applications.

You might try lowering the graphics acceleration, beyond that there's not
much I can offer unless there are DOS drivers available for your graphics
card. You'd have to check the card manufacturer's website or perhaps its
driver disk and there's not guarantee XP would let you install them. Open
Control Panel, open Display, go to the Settings tab, click Advanced, go to
the Troubleshoot tab and move the slider to the left to lower acceleration.

Beyond that, I can only suggest creating a DOS boot floppy with the
necessary drivers to allow the application to run in a true DOS environment,
something that does not exist on XP.

 

[Sharon F]

Hi all, I'm running an old invoice package on a lap top using XP pro, the
menue's that run at full screen cause it to lock (no mouse or keyboard) This
program runs fine on my pc with XP.

If you run the program from a shortcut on the desktop, check its properties
and compare them with the shortcut properties on the desktop. Perhaps
something is set differently there that allows it to run on the desktop.