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FRONTIER HELP - TROUBLESHOOTING


Problems with Base Memory


On many modern computers, especially those with many different pieces of hardware (such as CD drives, video cards and DVDs), you may not have enough base memory to run FRONTIER. This is an old form of memory, which all computers have 640kb of, regardless of age. It is used by soundcard drivers, CD drivers, video drivers and old games like FRONTIER.

Fortunately, there is a simple way to stop your drivers taking up base memory - don't use them! Most of them are not needed to run FRONTIER, and Windows itself takes care of most of the functions itself. Thus, there are three main ways to free up base memory.

- Bareboot your system
- Selectively boot your system (only available to users of Windows 95 and above)
- Create a Boot Disk

    It is simple to bareboot your system - all you have to do is interrupt your computer when it is loading. When you turn on or restart your computer, before it enters Windows (or DOS), it performs a system check, and displays its results in white writing on a black background. Immedeately after this, a message appears (also in white) saying "starting windows XX" (or "Starting MS-DOS"), and stays for up to 5 seconds, depending on the speed of your machine. While this message is displaying , either hold down SHIFT until the Windows startup screen appears, or press F8 and choose "Safe Mode" at the menu that appears.
    In safe mode, Windows uses default settings (VGA monitor, no network, Microsoft mouse driver, and the minimum device drivers required to start Windows). You will not have access to CD-ROM drives, printers, or other devices. This should reduce your Base Memory usage to a level at which Frontier can run comfortably. However, Safe mode often disables your sound drivers, meaning that you will need to run Frontier either without sound or with the Internal Speaker.

    To selectively boot your system, press F8 when the "Starting Windows" message appears (see above). Select "step by step confirmation" (option 4 or 5), and answer "YES" to all of the questions EXCEPT the ones involving autoexec.bat and config.sys (the 3rd and 7th questions), to which you answer NO. When Windows starts, you should have enough base memory to run Frontier, and the sound drivers will have been loaded. However, you won't be able to run some of your other programs (generally older DOS - based ones), as they require the files you disabled - to run these, just restart the computer.

    Making a bootdisk is more complicated than the above methods, but is still quite easy. Enter the DOS prompt, place a floppy disk in the drive, and type "FORMAT A:". Confirm, and when the format is finished tell it to make the disk a system disk. Then copy the files autoexec.bat, config.sys, command.com and io.sys to the disk (from your root directory) and edit the autoexec.bat on the disk (using Notepad or the equivalent) to delete any references to MSCDEX (your CD - drive) and MOUSE. Put the disk in your drive, and restart your computer.

     A bootdisk can be useful if you want to run other old DOS - based programs in the same session as your Frontier game.

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