WinXP, Screen blackout

[Guest_imported]

I had spend years' of spare time to develop an App in Qbasic so you know how much i like it. I moved it as to a new computer with Windows XP, and my trouble comes. First of all, Qbasic would just apear as a small window. If I right click the icon and changing "properties" to "full screen" would cause a screen blackoutnext time I run qbasic, except some vertical dotted lines (I wish i could give you a screen shot here). The more vexing is that command "screen 2" etc will also lead to a screen black out even if i run Qbasic in that small window.. what shall i do?

 

[Nyaj2k1]

WindowsXP reacts differently to DOS programs for each different hardware configuration. I mean, even if you are using the same WindowsXP CD-ROM for two of your computers, if the hardware configuration is different between the two they will react different to QB or any other DOS app.

One XP machine works with all DOS programs with no trouble, QB loads and even uses any SVGA Libs I may have without a glitch. On the other hand, the other XP machine refuses to load any DOS programs at all... They seem to close themselves before they ever really start.

Why all of these problems? WindowsXP uses a DOS emulator, which seems to be pretty buggy (perhaps intentional, we all know how they feel about DOS...) or just not capable enough to handle all DOS situations.

There seems to be no solution to fixing these problems in WindowsXP, but if you have a Windows98 CD and a Windows98 boot floppy, you can install a dual-boot system with WindowsXP and Windows98.

1) First, make sure that you have a running WindowsXP system already installed on the computer you want to make the dual-boot on.

2) Insert the Windows98 boot floppy and when the menu appears tell it you want CD support.

3) Run the SETUP.EXE program from the Windows98 CD.

4) Go through the menus and dialogs until you get to the point where you specify the install directory. Type anything as the Windows98 install directory except the WindowsXP directory.

5) Finish the setup. After you are done with the installation, every time you boot a menu will allow you to select which OS you wish to run.

This also works with Windows2000. Hope I been of help.

 

[Guest_imported]

Thank you Nyaj2k1. You can say that again. In fact the first symptom was that QB refused to load at all. Then i played with .pif and deleted QB configuration file (which seems to be automatically generated from Win98). Then QB started to work in a small window. ALT+Enter does enlarge it. However my pre-assigned color set are messed up. My program works in a table (like excel) and called assembly language to make scroll-up and down, and it doesn't scroll in full screen mode. Worst of all is that "cls" command doesn't work, as i toggle through menu bars in my program it leave trails all over the screen... I believe that's not only for QB, it's for all DOS apps instead. Even if i run "edit", it shows up only after a lot of flashes and blacks and pauses, not without a pain..