Why can't I bang out and run DOS commands in MATLAB?

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I am running MATLAB and am trying to bang out (use the ! command) to run DOS commands. When I do this, the window hangs and the only way to clear this is to exit MATLAB. Why is this occurring?

Accepted Answer

MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 27 Jun 2009
Previous customer reports have indicated that this behavior may occur when a virus checker was enabled on the system. If you have a virus scanner running, try disabling it before starting MATLAB.
Otherwise, there may be a conflict on your system between MATLAB and some other device driver. Try to boot clean and then start MATLAB. To boot clean, do the following:
When you originally boot your system, you will first see some BIOS information and the system will check memory. After the memory check a message should appear at the bottom of the screen saying
Starting Windows 95 (or Windows 98 or Windows ME)
At this point, hit the F8 function key. This will interrupt the boot process and allow you to set the type of boot.
Select "Safe Boot". This will instruct Windows 95 or Window s98 or Windows ME to ignore your configuration customizations and extra drivers.
NOTE: If you have Windows NT or Windows 2000, please boot into VGA mode. This is the equivalent for the above procedure for Windows 95/98/ME
To figure out which driver is causing the problem, please do the following:
First try booting your system clean to determine if it definitely is a driver that is causing MATLAB problems. This can be done as follows:
- create a boot disk by typing 'sys a:' at the DOS prompt. In this example 'a:' is the drive that is going to be used to boot from.
- create a config.sys file on your boot disk with the following two lines:
DEVICE C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
FILES=30
- create an autoexec.bat file on your boot disk with the following path statement:
PATH C:\DOS; C:\WINDOWS
- Reboot the system off of the boot disk by restarting your computer with the boot disk in its drive.
If MATLAB runs fine after 'booting clean', then start adding device drivers one by one to your config.sys file to determine which driver is causing the problem. Once a device driver has been added to your config.sys file, please reboot the machine for the changes to take effect and start MATLAB to see if it runs properly.
For more information on 'booting clean' and the config.sys and autoexec.bat files, please refer to an MS-DOS manual.

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