Window Shutdown loop

I'm writing on behalf of my friend. His mother tried installing a program or game called solitile and his mom had to access this game through dos and she got to dos by clicking on restart in DOS. She is not sure what she did, but now her system will only come up (restarting, etc) as Window's is ready to shut down in big red letters.

What could of possibly happened and is this something that could be fixed?

 

I am curious as to which method was used to Restart in Dos Mode.
The first is achieved by selecting Restart in Dos Mode, by first selecting Shutdown from the Start button, and then selecting it. To exit this method you simply reboot or turn off the computer.
The second method is the shortcut to the program is set to restart the computer in dos mode. To leave this method you would first exit the program and windows should restart, or type in "Exit" and press Enter. Failure to do so can result in the problem you are having.

Try this to fix it.
First go to Bootdisk, and download the file for 98SE OEM. Put a floppy in the drive and double-click this file, and a 98 boot floppy will be created for you. Do not copy this file to the floppy and expect it to work. This file will create the 98 floppy regardless of what version of windows you are running.
Boot the computer with it, selecting Without CDRom support when prompted.
When you see the A:\> appear, do these commands.
attrib -r -s -h c:\msdos.sys
edit c:\msdos.sys
Add this line to the file, just below the lines with all the X's

BootMenu=1

To save this, press ALT+F, your File menu will open, select Save. Then use ALT+F to access the menu and this time select Exit.
Do this command at the prompt:
attrib +h +r +s c:\msdos.sys
Take out floppy and reboot the computer. At the Start Menu that should appear at this time, select Safe Mode. When it has completely booted and you see the desktop, Shutdown, selecting Restart.
When the Start Menu appears this time, select Normal.
If windows starts up, go to Start\Run, type in Msconfig and press Enter. When the System Configuration Utility appears, click on the Advanced button in the lower right, in the new small window that appears, uncheck Enable Startup Menu.

 

Mark, thank you for your input, however, when she was in DOS mode she did something to cause her computer to boot INTO the screen that says "Window's is ready to be shut down." The only way they can turn off the computer is to turn it off by the switch on the back of the tower. Also, she doesn't have (as far from what I've been told) 98SE.

 

Well, here we go with the usual old time remedy ..
Right click on C:\config.sys
chose "Rename" fom the pop-up Menu, left position cursor.
Type config.old and using the DEl key, delete the remaining characters to the right
Hit Enter key - the file should now appear as config.old and not config.sys
Follow a similar procedure for file autoexec.bat
reboot PC
If you have problems after doing this, post contents of config.old
and autoexec.old to this board

 

Demonicus, I had a similar problem a while ago. Read through This Post and see if there is any thing that will help you out with your problem Specifically look at my second post titled "I fixed it!

 

Demonicus,

It doesn't matter that your mother doesn't have SE, just follow markp62's directions.

 

If you follow my instructions, you should not go into a loop when you try to start the computer.

 

Hi Demonicus,
This is not an uncommon problem and should be fairly easy to resolve. We do need feedback however. If one way doesn't do it another will. If you are having problems understanding any of the steps or suggestions already offered please ask for these to be broken down or explained differently. If you need a "step by step" this can also be provided. The point is advice and how-tos can be provided at what ever level of experience you need them to be. Do not be embarrassed or shy about asking for more information or admitting that you do not understand how to do something. Most of us have suffered through the "been there and done thats" and would never judge another. Also if something has been suggested and did not work, post that.

Where are you???? It's been days!!!

 

Disk error?

While I haven't messed up my computer in reguards to booting problems, I know that the day will come and one day i decided to make a Start-Up floppy. The prompt said I needed to format it first, so I clicked OK, and a prompt came up that said "Windows cannot format this disk. Check if the disk is write-protected." I can never get Windows to reconize the OEM drive in my IBM computer. The LED blinks and I opened the case to inspect the cables, but it. Does anybody know what happened to my floppy drive?

 

Can't say whay happened, but get a new floppy drive and install it. They're only about $10.

 

Failure to do so can result in the problem you are having

Under some conditions it can lead to a reinstal of Windows

When this method is used there is some file swaping done. I believe that Autoexec.bat may be one of them.

I THINK !!

And if anything other then EXIT is used ( lets say you just restart the PC ) they do not get re-swaped properly.

It has been so long since I did any work with the MSDOS Mode that I do not remember all of the details. But I DO REMEMBER that I messed up and it required a reinstall of 98FE to fix it.

Also if you use the MsDos Prompt EXIT must be used.

BillyBob