It is possible that the file himem.sys could be corrupt or
missing. To determine this, boot from a known good bootable
floppy diskette. If you are able to successfully boot from a
bootable diskette, it is likely the copy of the himem.sys on the hard
disk drive is corrupt or missing or not setup properly in the
config.sys. If you encounter the same issue, skip to physical
memory issue.
Because it is possible that the file may be missing or corrupt,
once at the A:\> prompt type the bellow commands.
If you are running MS-DOS 6.x or Windows 3.x type:
copy himem.sys c:\windows <press enter>
copy himem.sys c:\dos <press enter>
copy himem.sys c:\ <press enter>
If, when typing any of the above commands, you receive a
prompt that the file already exists, ensure to overwrite it.
Note: While this file generally is only located in the Windows
directory, it is possible for it also to be located in the root
or DOS directory.
If you are running Windows 95, Windows 98, type:
copy himem.sys c:\windows
<press enter>
If when typing any of the above commands you receive a
prompt that the file already exists, ensure to overwrite it.
Reboot the computer; if the issue continues to occur, verify that
the config.sys is properly setup. The line himem.sys should read:
DEVICE=C:\Windows\HIMEM.SYS
or
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
Additional information and examples
of the config.sys can be found on our autoexec.bat
/ config.sys page.
If, when booting from a known working bootable diskette, you
encounter a himem.sys error, it is likely that your computer has a
physical memory or related hardware issue causing this error. Because
this could be a physical defect, we recommend that you contact the computer
manufacturer, take the computer into a local service center or
replace memory / motherboard.
