EM386

After reformatting my hard drive, I reinstalled Windows 98. And now at startup it says EM386.EXE not found, and gives me some memory errors. My comptuer runs fine now except when i try to run large programs or when I try to burn a CD. I am almost positive it has something to do with this missing EM386. Does anyone know what i should do? Someone suggested reinstalling DOS but I have no idea where i can even find a copy of the newest DOS.
Thanks,
Conti

First off, forget about installing DOS. It’s not required.

You could try re-installing '98 and see what happens. Did you pay attention during the last installation? i.e where you sitting at the PC watching the screen? As a rule, an error message will indicate when there’s a problem with a particular file, but of course with MS that’s not always the case.

Do you have a friend with the same version of Windows installed and running correctly? Have them search for that file, make a note of the location, and get a copy of it and place it in the same folder on your PC.

It sounds like something in your config.sys or autoexec.bat file is looking for EMM386.exe in order to perform DOS memory management.

The first thing I would try is renaming these files then rebooting, as they aren’t required for Win98 to run, though they may be needed to load device drivers if you are running some older equipment or using real-mode drivers.

MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU REMEMBER WHAT YOU NAMED THEM SO YOU CAN NAME THEM BACK WHEN YOU ARE DONE TROUBLESHOOTING THE ISSUE.

You can also run sysedit from the Start|Run window to see what is loading or attempting to load in these files when you startup your system. If you find that you actually do need EMM386.exe, it should be in the Windows\Command directory IIRC (I’m running Win2K, and it’s a different beast, so I can’t check).