A lot of people, myself included, have been enduring a lot of problems activating EMS in a DOS box in the said operating system. Here are the solutions I have discovered along with another question:

If your game requires EMS and you get no report of free EMS when you use the MEM command try these actions:

First, you want to edit your config.nt file and make sure it has the functioning lines (i.e. not rem'med out with a #):

files=60
EMM=RAM

A lot of people complain that editing this file makes no difference to their expanded memory. That's because, I am sorry to dissapoint Microsoft haters, the problem is with your motherboard, not with Windows XP. You must do it, but you must do more...

If you have a modern Mobo with lots of onboard essentials like networking and legacy USB support, you must turn it all off using the disable feature in the BIOS otherwise you will not get EMS under Windows XP no matter what you do.

You have to disable legacy USB support and onboard Ethernet adaptors at least and I recommend you disable any other on board components that you do not use.

Once you have done this of course, you cannot run networking with your old DOS game unless you buy a plug in Ethernet adaptor or change the settings every time you want to switch between games and networking, but as long as you also remember to go into _default.pif properties with a right click on it's icon and set both XMS and EMS memory to their highest values, you will have a very good chance of being able to run your games.

To check it, when you have tried all these changes, run a command line and type mem and look for EMS reports.

I write this posting hoping that it will solve problems for many people because I know how exciting it is just to be able play that old favourite after so many years gathering dust on the 'things to do when I get the time' shelf.

Now, I have a problem of my own. Can anybody help me?

I have finally managed to get EMS working fine in Windows thanks largely to reading postings on internet forums, but I still can't run my favourite game, Ultima Underworld II.

When I call up the game, it gets as far as telling me "EMS allocated" then stops. And all my native Windows programs begin to work very slowly as it hangs.

Despite all my efforts I still cannot get Underworld II to work with VDMSound and I so want to because, not only is this the game I most loved on the PC but also because all these technologically advanced wearisome imitations are only turning my head to better days all over again.

How do I get Underworld I or II to work with VDMS in windows XP?