Use the Old Autoexec?

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Thanks Mark… I did it, and so far, so good! I’m definitely saving these to a disk so I won’t have that problem again. I can’t begin to tell you the trouble I’ve had since I took the computer to a local store to have them install my new cd-writer and to check my sound card… to capsulize it, my computer doesn’t boot normally. (It shows the load screen twice with a full second in between, and hesitates so long at the C prompt, I wonder if it’s going to boot at all, sometime.) Plus they wiped my hard drive clean and saved only the data, and kept it 3 days. I only got it back by insisting they have it done by Saturday, at their closing time. They only installed 95 and tried to sell me a full version of 98 because they “don’t recommend the upgrade.” So needless to say, I’m still reinstalling and downloading and having problems!

I always save a copy of my 98 autoexec.bat and config.sys before I make major changes, so I’m wondering if it’s safe to use those instead of the way they did it. For example, now my autoexec reads
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D0 T4
@if exist C:WININST0.400SuWarn.Bat call C:WININST0.400SuWarn.Bat
@if exist C:WININST0.400SuWarn.Bat del C:WININST0.400SuWarn.Bat
C:CFG801
C:DOS801
REM [Header]
@ECHO OFF

and my config.sys only reads: REM [Header] DOS=HIGH,UMB

No mention of MSInput, the cdrom, windows command or himem, etc. And what in the world is header???? These changes were made when they put 95 in. I had to install 98 upgrade myself.

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You have demonstrated the reason I got into this stuff. I hated the prospect of taking my computer to a shop and them giving me a line of bull….same thing with cars, really. The more you know the less someone can take advantage of you. We’ll leave my thoughts of the shop you visited on the sideline as it’s not relevant.

I can’t tell you to use another AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS without seeing it. What I can do here is to dissect the one that you have posted. Before you continue reading through this, a REM is a REMark or comment in a batch file, as are double colons (::). Anything following them is not executed.

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D0 T4
This is an environmental variable for Creative sound cards. No problem.

@if exist C:WININST0.400SuWarn.Bat call C:WININST0.400SuWarn.Bat
@if exist C:WININST0.400SuWarn.Bat del C:WININST0.400SuWarn.Bat
These two lines I would put a REM or :: in front of to comment them out. Your computer will run fine without them. They are checking for a file named SuWarn.BAT which is created by Windows setup – the first line runs the batch file if it’s there and the second deletes it.

C:CFG801
C:DOS801
These are both for your sound card, providing sound for DOS games. If you don’t play DOS games, you can put a REM or :: in front of them.

REM [Header]
Nothing special. Just a remark.

@ECHO OFF
Turns the command line echo off. Any program that runs in DOS after this will do so in “silence” and will not display screen messages.

Your CONFIG.SYS is fine the way it is. If you use any DOS programs, you should have these three lines in there, but if not you can leave it totally blank:

(optional CONFIG.SYS)
LOADHIGH C:WINDOWSHIMEM.SYS
LOADHIGH C:WINDOWSEMM386.EXE
DOS=HIGH, UMB

If you have a properly installed system, there should not be a CD-ROM driver, nor anything else for your drives in there. If there is, performance will suffer. Windows, when loaded, has a 32-bit disk access driver and loadig the DOS versions will force them to run much slower.

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Mark, I completely agree with your views on that shop! I know more than they do! They’d told me 98 was corrupt and needed reinstalling, so since I’d planned to take care of that myself, I thought they could do it while installing the cd writer. It wasn’t until they called me for my product key for 95 that I realized they’d taken everything out! There are three local shops in town and now I know only one knows what they’re doing! I’d just assumed the good guys would be too busy after Christmas!

I checked my config sys again and about 17 lines down there are lots of REMS in both the autoexec and config. Why so many lines??? Do they delay my boot? And why so many REMS?

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Why so many REMs? That I can’t answer for you. Some programs add those in there, as does Windows setup. They’re harmless and you can delete them if you wish.

The more relevant question – they are not slowing your computer down at all. If you were to delete them and notice a speed increase, the computer in question may be ready to enter life as a doorstop! They are reasd sequentially at boot-time and REMs are ignored. They are used for two main purposes, among other – to remove a line that may be problematic and to leave comments for yourself if you edit the file and need notes on what you are doing (or have done).

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Hi
I’m not sure that ‘LOADHIGH’ is a valid instruction for the config.sys file, though LOAD and LH are ok in autoexec.bat. *

This is the structure of my config.sys when I boot into 98SE. I load a real-mode CD driver, in case I want to stay in DOS. This is replaced by Windows own drivers as it boots, so speed is not adversely affected.

DEVICE=C:WindowsHIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:WindowsEMM386.EXE NOEMS
DEVICEHIGH= {real mode CD driver}
DOS=HIGH,UMB
Country=044,850,C:WindowsCommandcountry.sys

There is no point in using DEVICEHIGH for the first 2 entries, and the last line gives me the UK as default country.

* Just tried LOADHIGH in config.sys. It doesn’t work. You have to use DEVICE. Sorry.

Rgds

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Good call MerC, I had my brain in backwards. LOADHIGH only works in AUTOEXEC, after you load HIMEM.SYS from CONFIG.SYS.

i always leave off the NOEMS statement though, because once in a blue moon some old DOS program needs it.

Jinkies!! Time for more caffeine!!

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No, guys, I didn’t mean Load High was for config sys… I was just saying that the usual things I’ve seen in both aren’t there. Thanks for you input… I know it’s hard without checking things hands-on, but you’ve been a really big help! I guess as long as I can get into the computer at all, I can put up with the slight delay in booting. (I’ve noticed if I leave the room while it’s booting, it seems to go faster. lol)

It’s great to know I can get instant help somewhere out there in cyberspace! From now on, this is my favorite place on the web! Thanks again!

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