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- ID:LH LOADHI.SYS and LOADHI.COM
- Quarterdeck Technical Note #138
- by Joe Wilder
-
- This Technical Note was written before QEMM 5.0 was released. QEMM
- 5 has
- new features such as OPTIMIZE that make this information less
- necessary.
- OPTIMIZE will LOADHI TSR's and Device Drivers in the most
- "Optimal" way, sometimes testing millions of different scenarios.
- In addition, the new LOADHI programs are more powerful than the
- old,
- have new parameters for determining the size of a particular TSR
- or Device Driver, and can locate these items in "High Memory" with
- greater specificity. Nevertheless, the information that follows
- can certainly be of use in helping to understand QEMM's LOADHI
- systems.
-
- The LOADHI programs are used to run resident programs and drivers
- in
- the memory area between 640K and 1024K. This area is normally
- reserved
- for hardware devices such as video cards, system ROM and Network
- Adapters. The more devices you have, i.e. the more reserved memory
-
- you have used, the less there will be available for using LOADHI to
-
- load programs.
-
- LOADHI comes in two forms:
-
- 1-LOADHI.COM is used to load resident programs high in the
- AUTOEXEC.BAT or from the DOS prompt. For example to load
- MOUSE.COM high you would enter "LOADHI MOUSE.COM" from the DOS
- prompt or in the AUTOEXEC.BAT.
-
- 2-LOADHI.SYS is used to load programs high from the CONFIG.SYS.
- For
- example to load ANSI.SYS high you would put a line in the
- CONFIG.SYS
- that says "DEVICE=LOADHI.SYS ANSI.SYS".
-
- Many new DESQview users assume that LOADHI can load TSR's and
- device drivers into extended or expanded memory. This is not the
- case. The only place these programs can be loaded is in free and
- contiguous areas in the memory area from 640K to 1024K. Since a
- 64K
- page frame also must be installed somewhere in this area, the
- available reserved is usually fragmented into several segments.
-
- All programs must be loaded into contiguous memory. Because of
- this,
- you will probably have more luck loading smaller TSR's than large
- ones. This varies from computer to computer and also depends on
- the
- devices installed on the particular computer. The LOADHI program
- always uses the largest area available first. For network drivers
- this may not be desirable. For instance, Novell, which uses
- two programs, likes to have its smaller program loaded first. To
- load
- the smaller program first into the smaller of two areas use LOADHI
- redundantly. Example; "LOADHI LOADHI IPX". The first copy of
- LOADHI
- loads another copy of LOADHI into the first (and larger) memory
- area
- available. The second copy of LOADHI then loads IPX into the next
- largest area available. Each time LOADHI gets used it erases
- itself
- from memory. At this point IPX is loaded into the smaller of the
- two
- areas. The larger is now again fully available. Using a single
- LOADHI to load NET3 (the second and the larger of the Novell
- programs)
- will put it in the larger memory area. Typing LOADHI at the DOS
- prompt reveals areas available for loading high.
-
- The RAM parameter to QEMM.SYS must be invoked in order to use
- LOADHI
- programs. This attaches some expanded memory to the unused
- addresses
- in the reserved memory area. Once the RAM is available, programs
- can
- be loaded there with LOADHI. Using the RAM parameter to QEMM.SYS
- prevents QEMM from being turned off.
-
- When using QEMM386 with DESQview there is one other thing to
- consider.
- DESQview has the capability of running most of its own code in the
- reserved memory area. You don't have to use the RAM parameter with
- QEMM
- to get this feature. XDV will map expanded memory onto the
- available
- addresses all by itself. It will then run DESQview in that memory.
-
- DESQview can use as much as 140K of reserved memory. Loading high
- too
- many resident programs and drivers before going into DESQview may
- cause DESQview to load more of itself into the lower 640K,
- resulting
- in no gain for the largest available window size in DESQview. If
- you
- are running DESQview, it is therefore a good idea to avoid loading
- "Pop-up" type TSR's before DESQview at all (using LOADHI or not)
- and
- install them instead in DESQview windows, where their overhead to
- lower
- memory can be completely overcome.
-
- Copyright (C) 1991 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
- * * * E N D O F F I L E * * *