Using EMM200 with Stacker

On the HP Palmtops, there is a limited amount of memory available to both run programs and save or store files. One way to increase the memory available for storage is to get a PC memory card and insert it in your Palmtop. Memory cards are relatively expensive. To increase the amount of storage space on such a card, many PC cards sold today have a file compression utility called Stacker pre-loaded on them. Stacker lets a 10 megabyte Flashcard store about as much data as a 20 megabyte card not using Stacker. While this is good, Stacker has to use some of the precious system RAM to operate, cutting into a very precious resource.

EMM200.ZIP (ON DISK icon) is a utility that simulates expanded memory on the HP Palmtop. The following is a description of how I used EMM200.ZIP to cut down the amount of RAM used by Stacker. I have a 2MB 100LX with the system RAM set to the maximum of 626K and a 10MB DoubleFlash card from ACE with Stacker 3.0 compression. My C drive is not Stacked. The end result of using EMM200 was that I gave up 64K on my C drive and gained 16K more of system RAM. The trade may not be worth it on a 1MB machine. This process should work the same for a 200LX.

1. 1. BACK UP YOUR C: DRIVE!
2. 2. Download EMM200.ZIP, unzip the files and read the English .DOC file (EMM200 is a Japanese program).
3. 3. Close all applications and open the AppManager. If you are in the Icons view, press (F8) to switch to the List view and look at the bar on top of the screen to see how much free memory you have (write down these numbers).
4. 4. Move EMM200.EXE and MAKEEMS.EXE to your C drive.
5. 5. From the DOS prompt Type makeems.exe 4 (the 4 sets aside 64K on your C: drive). Answer yes to the question in Japanese. This created EMM200.DAT on my C drive. (If this fails, it probably means that you don't have enough contiguous space on your C drive. Copy as many files as you can off your C drive (to your Stacked A: drive) and run makeems again.
6. 6. Reboot your Palmtop without loading Stacker (press (ALT) during boot and choose 3 from the menu). This allows you to edit your A drive's CONFIG.ZIP file. Load CONFIG.SYS into Memo and add device=a:\emm200.exe c:\emm200.dat in front of your other device drivers. My complete CONFIG.SYS file looks like this:

device=a:\acedrv.sys

device=a:\stacker.com /p=9 a: /EMS

shell=d:\dos\command.com /p

files=30

buffers=5

stacks=9,256

lastdrive=e

The first line activates EMM200 and tells it the file to use (this is the file you created with makeems.exe).

Dara Khoyi CompuServe ID: [74147,242]