Barbs: I would start by making sure your current autoexec.nt file matches the following stock file
@echo of
REM AUTOEXEC.BAT is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment
REM AUTOEXEC.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless
REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF
REM Install CD ROM extension
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.ex
REM Install network redirector (load before dosx.exe
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redi
REM Install DPMI suppor
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dos
REM The following line enables Sound Blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM
REM The command for setting the BLASTER environment is as follows
REM SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P33
REM where
REM A specifies the sound blaster's base I/O por
REM I specifies the interrupt request lin
REM D specifies the 8-bit DMA channe
REM P specifies the MPU-401 base I/O por
REM T specifies the type of sound blaster car
REM 1 - Sound Blaster 1.
REM 2 - Sound Blaster Pro
REM 3 - Sound Blaster 2.
REM 4 - Sound Blaster Pro I
REM 6 - SOund Blaster 16/AWE 32/32/6
RE
REM The default value is A220 I5 D1 T3 and P330. If any of the switches i
REM left unspecified, the default value will be used. (NOTE, since all th
REM ports are virtualized, the information provided here does not have t
REM match the real hardware setting.) NTVDM supports Sound Blaster 2.0 only
REM The T switch must be set to 3, if specified
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T
REM To disable the sound blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM, specify an invali
REM SB base I/O port address. For example
REM SET BLASTER=A