Hello, I have some things to say about this:

• PROMPT is not an environment variable. Should be just PROMT $P$G without the SET command.
• Which sound card are you using for initialization? SB16 or AWE?
• PATH environment variable doesn't have C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND directory included which has some essential DOS commands. Should be SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND and it is the default one.
• MSCDEX already comes with an installation on Windows 98 and it is located in C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND, use that instead which is the latest version.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-01-22, 19:07:

Hello, I have some things to say about this: […]
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Hello, I have some things to say about this:

• PROMPT is not an environment variable. Should be just PROMT $P$G without the SET command.
• Which sound card are you using for initialization? SB16 or AWE?
• PATH environment variable doesn't have C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND directory included which has some essential DOS commands. Should be SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND and it is the default one.
• MSCDEX already comes with an installation on Windows 98 and it is located in C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND, use that instead which is the latest version.

Thanks @Gmlb256!

I'll make the changes you suggest and report back 😀

The soundcard I believe is sb16 compatible - I'll need to check and confirm exactly what card it is though. Am I using the wrong command line?

It's been so long since I was completely familiar with autoexec and config.sys that I'm probably getting this all wrong and using half-remembered commands strings from my childhood!

guitarbloke wrote on 2023-01-22, 22:38:

The soundcard I believe is sb16 compatible - I'll need to check and confirm exactly what card it is though. Am I using the wrong command line?

No, I just saw the BLASTER environment variable but no program to initialize the sound card in DOS as I don't know which one exactly.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-01-22, 23:06:

guitarbloke wrote on 2023-01-22, 22:38:

The soundcard I believe is sb16 compatible - I'll need to check and confirm exactly what card it is though. Am I using the wrong command line?

No, I just saw the BLASTER environment variable but no program to initialize the sound card in DOS as I don't know which one exactly.

I think I've narrowed it down to the cd driver - If I REM that line out and reboot, I get a working command prompt. But As soon as I add it back in, it fails to load the prompt.

I can't see where I'm going wrong though - this is how is currently is (I've removed the blaster variables until I know the driver details/location).

Autoexec:
prompt $p$g
set path=c:\windows;c:\windows\command
REM c:\windows\command\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001

Config.sys
device=c:\windows\himem.sys
dos=high,umb
device=c:\windows\emm386.exe noems
REM device=c:\cdrom\oakcdrom.sys /D:MSCD001

All works perfectly until I add those cd driver lines back in.

Strange, try with GSCDROM.SYS which is nearly the same thing as OAKCDROM.SYS. If that still doesn't work, then with VIDE-CDD.SYS but that one is slightly less compatible.

Do you have a cdrom in the system ? Personally have never had an issue with oakcdrom.sys (specially d91 or D11 both) from 1995...
How about telling us a bit more about your system ? What motherboard, what CDROM, etc....

Horun wrote on 2023-01-23, 01:53:

Do you have a cdrom in the system ? Personally have never had an issue with oakcdrom.sys (specially d91 or D11 both) from 1995...
How about telling us a bit more about your system ? What motherboard, what CDROM, etc....

Hi @Horun,

Here's what I can tell you about the system -

Windows 98 (not SE)
Pentium II 266
Motherboard is a Microstar MS-6118
64MB RAM
10GB HDD
Floppy drive
Geforce2 MX 32MB
The drive is an LG DVD/CD-RW writer
I've got a PCI USB expansion card on the way which will help me with transferring files over (I don't have any floppies at the moment and it's a pain having to burn a CD everytime I want to transfer a file to the machine)

I haven't had a look at the soundcard yet physically, but Device Manager reports that it's a Yamaha OPL3-Sax (sound works works perfectly in Windows).

guitarbloke wrote on 2023-01-23, 10:09:

I haven't had a look at the soundcard yet physically, but Device Manager reports that it's a Yamaha OPL3-Sax (sound works works perfectly in Windows).

This means that the sound card definitely isn't SB16 compatible, it is a Yamaha YMF-71x based ISA sound card which is compatible with SBPro2 and WSS (Windows Sound System) for DOS programs.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-01-23, 13:32:

guitarbloke wrote on 2023-01-23, 10:09:

I haven't had a look at the soundcard yet physically, but Device Manager reports that it's a Yamaha OPL3-Sax (sound works works perfectly in Windows).

This means that the sound card definitely isn't SB16 compatible, it is a Yamaha YMF-71x based ISA sound card which is compatible with SBPro2 and WSS (Windows Sound System) for DOS programs.

Aaaah ok! So I'll need to change those lines as well in that case, thanks!