Many driver conflicts which can make a DOS emulator crash or perform poorly can be resolved with a "clean boot". This means restarting your computer with a clean autoexec file. The procedure is the following:

1) change into your root directory and find the file called autoexec.bat. Right click on this file and choose edit. The window will open and the content should look something like this:

SET SOUND=C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\CTSND
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
C:\SDD\UNIVBE32.EXE -w
TShoot: C:\PROGRA~1\MCAFEE\VIRUSS~1\SCANPM.EXE C:\
@IF ERRORLEVEL 1 PAUSE

REM --- By HiSpeed CD-ROM Drive installation program. 12/3/98 ---
rem C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000

PROMPT=$p$g
mode con codepage prepare=((850) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
mode con codepage select=850
keyb gr,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keyboard.sys

These lines refer to the drivers of the hardware which will be started with DOS. To run most emulators the only lines you will need are the ones referring to your sound card or your mouse. You can turn off all of the others for the use of you emulator. To safely do this without losing any of the information you can just type "rem" in front of the line. This means "remark" and indicates to DOS to disregard this particular line. This will look as following:

rem SET SOUND=C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\CTSND
rem SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
rem C:\SDD\UNIVBE32.EXE -w
rem TShoot: C:\PROGRA~1\MCAFEE\VIRUSS~1\SCANPM.EXE C:\
rem @IF ERRORLEVEL 1 PAUSE

REM --- By HiSpeed CD-ROM Drive installation program. 12/3/98 ---
rem C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000

rem PROMPT=$p$g
rem mode con codepage prepare=((850) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
rem mode con codepage select=850
rem keyb gr,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keyboard.sys

Note that I did not place a "rem" in front of the " set blaster" line. This is the one needed for your sound card.

If you restartin DOS mode now the only hardware that will be operational will be your sound card. Should you also need a mouse, make sure not to "rem" the mouse command, or refer to the mouse troubleshooting section on this page.