TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 04:41:

Whenever I boot into DOS mode I get the basic "C:\WINDOWS>"

Please be more precise about what you are doing when you "boot into DOS mode". Are you using the startup menu?

some DOS games I have won't run under a DOS Prompt window in Windows

You could be more precise about this as well.

(You do realize you're not going to get anything but PC Speaker beeps unless you set up sound card drivers, right?)

Just before the windows splash screen comes up, press f8 repeatedly until a menu comes up. Select the step by step boot option. You can now see if the driver is being loaded correctly. There might be error messages.. for example that oak cd driver might not be the right one for your drive.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-06-06, 05:48:

Please be more precise about what you are doing when you "boot into DOS mode". Are you using the startup menu? […]
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TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 04:41:

Whenever I boot into DOS mode I get the basic "C:\WINDOWS>"

Please be more precise about what you are doing when you "boot into DOS mode". Are you using the startup menu?

some DOS games I have won't run under a DOS Prompt window in Windows

You could be more precise about this as well.

(You do realize you're not going to get anything but PC Speaker beeps unless you set up sound card drivers, right?)

As for the booting into DOS mode, I mean I'm going into the Start Menu in Windows98, clicking "Shut Down", and then "Restart in MS-DOS Mode"

As for some Games not Working in a Win98 DOS prompt window the main one Is XCOM and another is Dragon Lore. As for the sound card thing, I had just never thought about that. I had mostly run DOS games under the dos prompt window in WIn98, so I haven't had to use a sound card driver yet. Does that mean I would have to install a mouse driver as well?

Hezus wrote on 2021-06-06, 07:15:

Just before the windows splash screen comes up, press f8 repeatedly until a menu comes up. Select the step by step boot option. You can now see if the driver is being loaded correctly. There might be error messages.. for example that oak cd driver might not be the right one for your drive.

When I did this It showed the following after I confirmed to let it process the startup device drivers:

This driver is provided by Oak Technology, Inc..
OTI-91X ATAPI CD-ROM device driver, Rev D91XV352
(C)Copyright Oak Technology Inc. 1987-1997
Device Name: MSCD001
Transfer mode: Programmed I/O
Number of drives: 1

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 07:33:

When I did this It showed the following after I confirmed to let it process the startup device drivers: […]
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Hezus wrote on 2021-06-06, 07:15:

Just before the windows splash screen comes up, press f8 repeatedly until a menu comes up. Select the step by step boot option. You can now see if the driver is being loaded correctly. There might be error messages.. for example that oak cd driver might not be the right one for your drive.

When I did this It showed the following after I confirmed to let it process the startup device drivers:

This driver is provided by Oak Technology, Inc..
OTI-91X ATAPI CD-ROM device driver, Rev D91XV352
(C)Copyright Oak Technology Inc. 1987-1997
Device Name: MSCD001
Transfer mode: Programmed I/O
Number of drives: 1

That's good. And mscdex.exe is showing no errors either?

Use the f8 method to boot into the Command Prompt only. This way your pc goes straight into DOS and you do not have interference from the Windows driver setup.

If you go this route, you will also have to load your mouse and Sound card through autoexec.bat.

Hezus wrote on 2021-06-06, 14:00:

That's good. And mscdex.exe is showing no errors either? […]
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TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 07:33:

When I did this It showed the following after I confirmed to let it process the startup device drivers: […]
Show full quote

Hezus wrote on 2021-06-06, 07:15:

Just before the windows splash screen comes up, press f8 repeatedly until a menu comes up. Select the step by step boot option. You can now see if the driver is being loaded correctly. There might be error messages.. for example that oak cd driver might not be the right one for your drive.

When I did this It showed the following after I confirmed to let it process the startup device drivers:

This driver is provided by Oak Technology, Inc..
OTI-91X ATAPI CD-ROM device driver, Rev D91XV352
(C)Copyright Oak Technology Inc. 1987-1997
Device Name: MSCD001
Transfer mode: Programmed I/O
Number of drives: 1

That's good. And mscdex.exe is showing no errors either?

Use the f8 method to boot into the Command Prompt only. This way your pc goes straight into DOS and you do not have interference from the Windows driver setup.

If you go this route, you will also have to load your mouse and Sound card through autoexec.bat.

This method did work. It shows all of my commands from Autoexec running and then lets me go to the D drive. My next question would be, Is there any other way to get to just the command prompt without the F8 thing? It seems a bit cumbersome. Or is that my only option?

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 19:02:

Hezus wrote on 2021-06-06, 14:00:

That's good. And mscdex.exe is showing no errors either? […]
Show full quote

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 07:33:

When I did this It showed the following after I confirmed to let it process the startup device drivers: […]
Show full quote

When I did this It showed the following after I confirmed to let it process the startup device drivers:

This driver is provided by Oak Technology, Inc..
OTI-91X ATAPI CD-ROM device driver, Rev D91XV352
(C)Copyright Oak Technology Inc. 1987-1997
Device Name: MSCD001
Transfer mode: Programmed I/O
Number of drives: 1

That's good. And mscdex.exe is showing no errors either?

Use the f8 method to boot into the Command Prompt only. This way your pc goes straight into DOS and you do not have interference from the Windows driver setup.

If you go this route, you will also have to load your mouse and Sound card through autoexec.bat.

This method did work. It shows all of my commands from Autoexec running and then lets me go to the D drive. My next question would be, Is there any other way to get to just the command prompt without the F8 thing? It seems a bit cumbersome. Or is that my only option?

There is a method, but please don't take umbrage at me saying that if you're a newbie with this kind of stuff, then it's not something you should be doing. It involves modifying Windows' system files, and one wrong move could very well make your system unbootable.

BeastOfSoda wrote on 2021-06-06, 21:02:

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 19:02:

Hezus wrote on 2021-06-06, 14:00:

That's good. And mscdex.exe is showing no errors either?

Use the f8 method to boot into the Command Prompt only. This way your pc goes straight into DOS and you do not have interference from the Windows driver setup.

If you go this route, you will also have to load your mouse and Sound card through autoexec.bat.

This method did work. It shows all of my commands from Autoexec running and then lets me go to the D drive. My next question would be, Is there any other way to get to just the command prompt without the F8 thing? It seems a bit cumbersome. Or is that my only option?

There is a method, but please don't take umbrage at me saying that if you're a newbie with this kind of stuff, then it's not something you should be doing. It involves modifying Windows' system files, and one wrong move could very well make your system unbootable.

For some reason, after I went through the step-by-step boot everything worked fine. Even if I restart into DOS from the Windows start menu like how I was trying before. Now it just works. Not sure why, but that question has now been solved.

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 23:19:

BeastOfSoda wrote on 2021-06-06, 21:02:

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 19:02:

This method did work. It shows all of my commands from Autoexec running and then lets me go to the D drive. My next question would be, Is there any other way to get to just the command prompt without the F8 thing? It seems a bit cumbersome. Or is that my only option?

There is a method, but please don't take umbrage at me saying that if you're a newbie with this kind of stuff, then it's not something you should be doing. It involves modifying Windows' system files, and one wrong move could very well make your system unbootable.

For some reason, after I went through the step-by-step boot everything worked fine. Even if I restart into DOS from the Windows start menu like how I was trying before. Now it just works. Not sure why, but that question has now been solved.

It is actually not that hard to boot straight into DOS with a Windows 95/98 installation and not as dangerous as BeastOfSoda mentions. You'll have to edit the MSDOS.SYS file and if you stick to the instructions you won't damage anything.

Once you're in C:\ you'll have to disable the write protection on the MSDOS.SYS file by typing:
attrib -h -s -r MSDOS.SYS

Now you can edit the file with your editor of choice. Scroll down and find the line 'BootGUI=1' and change it to 'BootGUI=0'. The system wil now boot straight into DOS instead of loading into Windows. If you also dislike looking at the Windows Splash screen you can add 'Logo=0' below the BootGui line and it will no longer display the Windows logo. This is very useful, because you'll be able to see the driver loading info.

Very handy in case you use your PC mainly for DOS games/applications and only use Windows for occasional stuff. Saves a lot of time booting up the system too. Just type 'win' and you're back in Windows.

If you're doing this, make sure you also load the soundcard drivers in autoexec.bat. Normally Windows will set these up for you, but if you bypass Windows, they will no longer work. I don't know what type of soundcard you have, but here's a pretty good guide for Soundblaster cards: https://retronn.de/imports/soundblaster_config_guide.html

Hezus wrote on 2021-06-07, 07:57:

It is actually not that hard to boot straight into DOS with a Windows 95/98 installation and not as dangerous as BeastOfSoda men […]
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TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 23:19:

BeastOfSoda wrote on 2021-06-06, 21:02:

There is a method, but please don't take umbrage at me saying that if you're a newbie with this kind of stuff, then it's not something you should be doing. It involves modifying Windows' system files, and one wrong move could very well make your system unbootable.

For some reason, after I went through the step-by-step boot everything worked fine. Even if I restart into DOS from the Windows start menu like how I was trying before. Now it just works. Not sure why, but that question has now been solved.

It is actually not that hard to boot straight into DOS with a Windows 95/98 installation and not as dangerous as BeastOfSoda mentions. You'll have to edit the MSDOS.SYS file and if you stick to the instructions you won't damage anything.

Once you're in C:\ you'll have to disable the write protection on the MSDOS.SYS file by typing:
attrib -h -s -r MSDOS.SYS

Now you can edit the file with your editor of choice. Scroll down and find the line 'BootGUI=1' and change it to 'BootGUI=0'. The system wil now boot straight into DOS instead of loading into Windows. If you also dislike looking at the Windows Splash screen you can add 'Logo=0' below the BootGui line and it will no longer display the Windows logo. This is very useful, because you'll be able to see the driver loading info.

Very handy in case you use your PC mainly for DOS games/applications and only use Windows for occasional stuff. Saves a lot of time booting up the system too. Just type 'win' and you're back in Windows.

If you're doing this, make sure you also load the soundcard drivers in autoexec.bat. Normally Windows will set these up for you, but if you bypass Windows, they will no longer work. I don't know what type of soundcard you have, but here's a pretty good guide for Soundblaster cards: https://retronn.de/imports/soundblaster_config_guide.html

I appreciate your help! I have a ProAudio Spectrum 16, and that is setup at the moment, along with my mouse. So, I think I'll take your advice since, at the moment my machine can't run most of the Windows games I want to run anyway. Thanks again.

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 07:23:

As for some Games not Working in a Win98 DOS prompt window the main one Is XCOM and another is Dragon Lore.

Perhaps you could say what happens instead just "it's not working"?

You may also consider OpenXCom, which fixes a lot of bugs.
https://openxcom.org/

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 19:02:

This method did work. It shows all of my commands from Autoexec running and then lets me go to the D drive. My next question would be, Is there any other way to get to just the command prompt without the F8 thing? It seems a bit cumbersome. Or is that my only option?

According to http://www.mdgx.com/msdos.htm#MEN , you can press CTRL-F5 or Shift-F5 instead of F8 to accomplish the same thing without having to go through the menu.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-06-07, 17:17:

Perhaps you could say what happens instead just "it's not working"? […]
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TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 07:23:

As for some Games not Working in a Win98 DOS prompt window the main one Is XCOM and another is Dragon Lore.

Perhaps you could say what happens instead just "it's not working"?

You may also consider OpenXCom, which fixes a lot of bugs.
https://openxcom.org/

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-06, 19:02:

This method did work. It shows all of my commands from Autoexec running and then lets me go to the D drive. My next question would be, Is there any other way to get to just the command prompt without the F8 thing? It seems a bit cumbersome. Or is that my only option?

According to http://www.mdgx.com/msdos.htm#MEN , you can press CTRL-F5 or Shift-F5 instead of F8 to accomplish the same thing without having to go through the menu.

As for "not working" I meant I couldn't play them because I needed access to the D Drive to play them and Windows DOS prompt tells me to run them in DOS Mode. I can access the D Drive now (and Duke3D works flawlessly!) but I haven't got around to testing Xcom again yet because I've been stuck on Dragon Lore (need to optimize my memory usage) Sorry If I'm still being too vague. As for the OpenXCom thing I will have to give that a look. Thanks for the tip.

TusockyThree68 wrote on 2021-06-07, 17:06:

I appreciate your help! I have a ProAudio Spectrum 16, and that is setup at the moment, along with my mouse. So, I think I'll take your advice since, at the moment my machine can't run most of the Windows games I want to run anyway. Thanks again.

No problem! Glad to be of assistance!