DMADIAG.EXE HOW DOES IT WORK?

How do you correctly use dmadiag.exe? I installed it and I did use "R2.BAT" and the game still works the same. I use ICR2 by starting WIN95 and then restarting to MS-DOS mode. The game is the same.Also when I start up my computer I press F8 and I use the R2.BAT and the game runs, but NO sound!!! Please help! Mark Light

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>Subject: DMADIAG.EXE HOW DOES IT WORK? >Date: Tue, 12 Nov 96 21:33:30 GMT >How do you correctly use dmadiag.exe? I installed it and I did use "R2.BAT" >and the game still works the same. I use ICR2 by starting WIN95 and then >restarting to MS-DOS mode. The game is the same.Also when I start up my >computer I press F8 and I use the R2.BAT and the game runs, but NO sound!!! >Please help! >Mark Light

I didn't run the r2.bat file, just the executable.

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>How do you correctly use dmadiag.exe? I installed it and I did use "R2.BAT" >and the game still works the same. I use ICR2 by starting WIN95 and then >restarting to MS-DOS mode. The game is the same.Also when I start up my >computer I press F8 and I use the R2.BAT and the game runs, but NO sound!!! >Please help! >Mark Light

Not sure what you mean by "the game still works the same". DMADIAG seems to solve a problem that some people have run into when trying to use INDYFAST. The symptoms are that when running INDYFAST from DOS, it shows the Rendition screen and then at the point when you should see the Papyrus logo, you get "pixel dust" at the top of the screen. It was obvious to me that the game was running, since I could hear Paul Page's voice, but the video wasn't working. Running DMADIAG cures this problem, though no one seems to know why at this point. Another alternative to running DMADIAG is to boot Win'95 and then reboot to DOS. Dave (davids) Sparks Late Night League http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/latenite.html

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> DMADIAG seems to solve a problem that some people have run into when trying > to use INDYFAST. The symptoms are that when running INDYFAST from DOS, it > shows the Rendition screen and then at the point when you should see the > Papyrus logo, you get "pixel dust" at the top of the screen. It was obvious > to me that the game was running, since I could hear Paul Page's voice, but > the video wasn't working. Running DMADIAG cures this problem, though no one > seems to know why at this point. Another alternative to running DMADIAG is > to boot Win'95 and then reboot to DOS.

dmadiag.exe doesn't always work. I tried it and got nothing. The way to "solve" my problem was to do a BIOS upgrade, or at least attempt one. I have a Tyan Titan III MB (v. 3.00) with Award BIOS. I got the 3.01 upgrade from the web and attempted the upgrade. Using awdflash.exe, I clean-booted a Windows95 floppy (probably a mistake). Anyway, it asked for the file to program, I typed in s68awd31.bin. It sat there for about 30 minutes. I decided this was wrong, gritted my teeth and hit reset. When the system rebooted, I wiped the sweat off my brow and tried again (it seemed safer this time). Thinking that I may have given it the wrong filename, I purposefully gave it an incorrect name. This time, it immediately asked me if I wanted to save the old BIOS. I said yes and gave it a filename. It couldn't find the input filename (which I purposefully typed in for this reason), and it kicked me out. Suffice it to say, I had believed that nothing happened. When the system boots, the version is still 3.00. I then ran dmadiag.exe again. This time it worked, BUT now indysafe doesn't work. Does dmadiag.exe modify the indysafe.bat and indyfast.bat files? I'd really like to know what dmadiag.exe did and/or awdflash.exe. VQUAKE still claims that "speedy3d_dma has disabled DMA or my BIOS doesn't support bus mastering". I know the motherboard supports bus mastering and Windows95 doesn't have a problem with the Reactor card. VQUAKE runs ok, but I'm most concerned that NCR2 runs. David Martin

>I have a Tyan Titan III MB (v. 3.00) with Award BIOS. I have a tyan Titan III with v3.01 and it doesn't work either. The only way I got it to work was to flash an old shareware BIOS called MR BIOS (I can e-mail this to you if you wish). Once I did this, the Reactor runs great (INDYFAST works, VQUAKE no longer reports Busmaster DMA not supported, and I gained over 5 FPS in VQUAKE ). I reported this problem to Mike at Rendition and I gave him some info, but I never heard anything back from him on whether they were investigating or not. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This space intentionally left blank

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> >I have a Tyan Titan III MB (v. 3.00) with Award BIOS. > I have a tyan Titan III with v3.01 and it doesn't work either. > The only way I got it to work was to flash an old shareware > BIOS called MR BIOS (I can e-mail this to you if you wish). > Once I did this, the Reactor runs great (INDYFAST works, VQUAKE > no longer reports Busmaster DMA not supported, and I gained over 5 FPS > in VQUAKE ). I reported this problem to Mike at Rendition and I gave > him some info, but I never heard anything back from him on whether > they were investigating or not. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > This space intentionally left blank

Finally!!! I've found someone who has seen the same problem I am having! I bought an Ocean Rhino 9 ver. 1.12 motherboard about three weeks ago. I had to get a replacement (ver.1.4) since it would not access my third HD. The motherboard uses Award bios. I can't remember the version, but I think it is 9-10-96 or something. I bought the Reactor about two weeks ago. Anyway, I get the pixel dust you guys are talking about with Indyfast and Vquake. I have been working with Intergraph tech support for the last week. Great people, but no luck. I finally asked Intergraph to send me a new board. They are overnighting it to me now (paying shipping both ways). Where can I get the dmadiag.exe utility you mentioned? I would like to see if that works. I'm sorry if you already discussed this. The first two or three postings in this thread have expired on me. I've been pretty busy trying to figure this problem out and haven't been keeping up with the group I had already concluded DMA was the problem. But I thought it was the Reactor, since other DMA devices seemed to work fine. Also where can get the Mr BIOS you mentioned, just in case? Thanks in advance!!! Tony Joy