Re: HELP! V5.1 won't run on Pentium Computer

From: Richard D Holowczak <holowcza_at_andromeda.rutgers.edu>
Date: 1995/08/30
Message-ID: <422s2c$hjr_at_andromeda.rutgers.edu>#1/1


robins_at_rmii.com writes:

>Help! I need to learn Oracle, so I bought a complete copy of 5.1C
>with all docs. It doesn't install all the way. It violates memory
>at a specific location when initializing the database. If I manually
>start "oracle" the SQLPME program either hard locks the machine under DOS,
>or under windows 95 it says loading Oracle and locks.
 

>I have a Packard Bell Pentium 90, with 24 megs. Does anyone know what versions
>of Windows, NT, OS/2, or DOS might make this work?

and I thought all of the Oracle for DOS copies had gone away ... :)

Seriously, Oracle v5.1 is several versions old. THe version you have must be for MS-DOS and it will NOT run under MS-Windows 3.1 or win95. The reason is that the DOS versions of the Oracle engine (5.x and 6.x) run using Oracle's own protected mode memory manager called SQLPME. This driver allows Oracle to access up to 16 megabytes of memory on a 286/386/486 or Pentium machine.

To get this to work, boot up plain vanilla DOS. If you can, disable any other memory managers such as EMM386 as well. EMM386 is typically installed in the CONFIG.SYS file. Then install Oracle from scratch. At some point, you will be asked to supply a MACHINE_TYPE for your PC. I've found that on most Compaq and Gateway 2000 PCs, MACHINE_TYPE 2 works OK. If in doubt, try one of the Compaq choices. Try others if that does not work. You can also change this setting in the CONFIG.ORA file as well.

Another tip is that you may have to set another parameter to limit the amount of memory SQLPME tries to grab since you have more than 16 Mb installed. Check the docs for this one.

I don't know what your investment in Oracle 5.1 was, but you can get a free 90 day trial of Personal Oracle for Windows 3.1 (not Win95 yet) from the Oracle WWW site. I think they were charging something like $199 for the CD.

Cheers,


Rich Holowczak         E-Mail: holowcza_at_andromeda.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University     http://pfmis.rutgers.edu/people/holowcza/
Received on Wed Aug 30 1995 - 00:00:00 CEST

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