Problems with a DOS boot disk -- Getting EMM386.EXE to work correctly.

[Shudder]

Now, it's been many years since I've really messed around with pure dos, but this isn't working too well for me.

In my config.sys I have

device=emm386.exe

and it does nothing but lock it up.. I've also tried it on a:\ and c:\windows\emm386.exe and it still just locks up.

I need it to run my SB16 driver and emm is the only thing keeping me from it. Any leads? I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[jimmygates]

Hi,

I remember when I had to mess with those settings. Thank god for bootable CD-Roms and cd's! . I remember when I entered the settings, my config line looked like this..

DEVICE=location of emm386.exe NOEMS

there for this is what it looked like

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

I'm not sure if this is right or if it will solve your problem but it's worth a try. =]

 

[jimmygates]

Hi,

I remember when I had to mess with those settings. Thank god for bootable CD-Roms and cd's! . I remember when I entered the settings, my config line looked like this..

DEVICE=location of emm386.exe NOEMS

there for this is what it looked like

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

I'm not sure if this is right or if it will solve your problem but it's worth a try. =]

-Jimbo

 

[kwisatz]

The NOEMS parameter disables EMS (expanded) memory in dos. That should be OK in most cases, as only a few old dos-programs/games make use of EMS memory.

If you need EMS, use emm386.exe RAM. The RAM parameter tells emm386.exe to simulate EMS memory using the extended memory (basically all the memory over 1MB in your system).

 

[Shudder]

I tried the RAM line, but it still just froze up.

Maybe it's just the EMM386 included with my WinME is a sham. Anyone have an .exe they can front me? I doubt it's pirating or all that jazz, it's just a working version of a file I already have.

I'll try the NOEMS thing to see if it does anything. AUTO didn't work either.

 

[kwisatz]

Sent Emm386.exe and Himem.sys (from win98) to the email adress listet in your profile. If this does not solve the problem I can try to send you an entire win98 boot disk...

 

[Shudder]

Thanks a lot. I'll be trying the files when I get home. And does the boot disk have emm and himem and such on it already? I'm about to just build myself a 386/40 and say the hell with it

 

[whizler]

I thought that HIMEM.SYS had to be loaded before EMM386.EXE. To wit, your config.sys file would have these lines:

DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=EMM386.EXE NOEMS

in that order. Also, look for a line in the BIOS that mentions A20 something or other. Enable it if disabled or disable it if enabled. Let me know if it continues to be a problem. There's a HIMEM.SYS switch that does something with A20, but it escapes me at the moment.

 

[kwisatz]

Himem.sys does need to be loaded before Emm386...

Can't remember if emm386 is on the standart win98 boot disk - if not I'll just put it ther manually

whizler, My first PC:
8086@4Mhz
640Kb Ram
265Kb video, 12' ega color monitor
30 Mb Seagate harddrive (quite enormous for time)
Dos 3.0, Win 2.1
That system really rocked

 

[jimmygates]

Hrm... I just noticed that on your previous post you mentioned Windows ME. Is Windows ME your primary OS? I remember reading somewhere that DOS was completely pulled from the OS and you were only given the MS-DOS prompt from within the OS to work with. Seems to have some validity to it since you now can no longer boot into MS-DOS mode either by the F8 startup menu or from Windows. I tried using some .exe's from my Win98 bootdisk and it gave me errors of "Incorrect DOS version". :\

-Jimbo

 

[kwisatz]

Yeah, the "incorrect DOS version" is displayed because command.com is af a different version than the exe files you were using. A complete win98 boot disk is probably the only solution that will work.

Shudder, If you send me a list of wich DOS files you need (e.g. Emm386.exe) I'll put them + command.com and himem.sys in a ZIP file and send them to you.