Mikhail Zhilin wrote in message . ..
I would boot in Command Prompt Only mode, and rename Config.sys and
Autoexec.bat as, say, Config.w98 and Autoexec.w98:

ren c:\config.sys *.w98
ren c:\autoexec.bat *.w98

Restart after that (Ctrl-Alt-Del) in normal mode: step-by-step
confirmation loads Command.com, that won't be loaded at all if there is
no Autoexec.bat.


I tried this suggestion but the system just hung after a brief
appearance of the Windows 98 logo.sys start up screen.

I think that I will just have to concede defeat on this one. Maybe
there are some settings in the BIOS that could provide the solution
but I think that the considerable time it will take me to discover the
right settings is probably not offset by the benefit of running 98se
on this machine.

Many thanks to everyone for their suggestions and patience.