Category : Alternate Operating Systems - Quarterdeck DesqView, CP/M, etc
Archive   : QTEC9306.ZIP
Filename : AST286.TEC

ID:A2 AST Premium 286 Setup
Quarterdeck Technical Note #122 Filename: AST286.TEC
by Stan Young CompuServe:
Last revised: 2/10/92 Category: HW3

Subject: Setting up the AST Premium 286 for use with DESQview.


First, let me say that this technical note does not eliminate the need on
your part to read Appendix B in the DESQview manual concerning the setup of
DESQview on machines with exPANDed and exTENDed memory. This appendix
explains the fundamentals of setup on such machines, but Appendix B is
required reading.
This note is designed to point out the differences in setup between an
IBM AT with an AST RAMpage, as documented in Appendix B, and the AST Premium
286.
The first important difference is that all of the memory supplied on the
FASTRAM cards, including the memory that is normally allocated to motherboard
or base RAM, is EEMS capable. Therefore, IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO DISABLE ANY
BASE MEMORY when using the FASTRAM cards. Normally, out of the box, these
machines come with 1 meg of memory. 640K is base memory and the rest is
configured as expanded memory with the use of the REMM.SYS driver. So in the
default configuration, in the parlance of Appendix B, it is set up as though
you had a 1 meg RAMpage board backfilling to 0K.
The one change that you may want to make to the FASTRAM board switches
would allow using the DESQview QEXT.SYS file so that it might use 64K of
exTENDed memory. Again, read Appendix B concerning the use of extended memory
and the QEXT.SYS file. As mentioned, the machine comes configured to have
640K of base and 384 of exPANDed memory. Assuming that you only want enough
exTENDed memory to support QEXT.SYS, you would want to set up your machine to
have 640K of base, 128K of exTENDed and the rest expanded memory. To do this,
you must change the switches that are on the FASTRAM card that set the Linear
Memory Size from 640K (the default) to 768K. These settings are listed on
page B-5 of the AST User's Reference and will not be duplicated here.
Once you have set the switches to 768K, ignore the Setup error that
occurs on reboot, and run the AST SETUP program and configure the machine so
that it shows 640K base, 128K of extended and the rest expanded. Load the
QEXT.SYS and REMM.SYS drivers in your CONFIG.SYS file and you should be ready
to load DESQview using the XDV.COM file (again, read Appendix B concerning
this file.)

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*This technical note may be copied and distributed freely as long as it*
*is distributed in its entirety and it is not distributed for profit. *
* Copyright (C) 1990-2 by Quarterdeck Office Systems *
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