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boots to blank screen with c: |

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by ssctsi

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windows 98 boots to blank screen with the following:

c: |

Anyone have any ideas?

10 replies

by buffalodan

yes, it appears to be a DOS prompt. can you call up a directory? Type dir and press enter.

Can you change the appearance of that prompt?
type prompt=$p$g and press enter

Honest to God, thid machine may be an excellent candidate for exhaustiveanti-virus scan, followed by a format and reload.

Not good news.

by syscokid

Better yet, type "win" at the prompt (without quotes). If Windows starts, then the problem is with your MSDOS.SYS file. You may simply need to edit it with Notepad and look for a line that says

BootGUI=

It should say

BootGUI=1.

If it's missind, add it. If it's there but says other than =1, change it to =1.

Note:MSDOS.SYS is a hidden, read-only file. In Win Explorer Tools, Options, make sure yourr system is set to show all files. Then look for it in the root of C. Right-click on it and remove the read-only attribute. After you edit it, add the read-only attribute again.

by james a bailey

Just to add to above, if msdos.sys is missing, you can go to any other 98 machine and copy it from that machine to your machine.

by barmaley

Or type "exit" - enter

If you clicked on Restart in MS-DOS mode, it's all you will get.

Another possibility, check MSCONFIG for DOS=single line, if you see it delete it. This line will prevent booting to Windows

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