Becky, Becky, Becky!
If you knew what grief it caused me to try to help. For the heck of it, I restarted in DOS mode. What a mistake. But, after about 4 hours and a few phone calls, I was able to get back to Windows. Whew!
Anyway, it is not real clear to me what the problem is. Is it just that it takes too long to boot? Is your father having to answer prompts in the DOS mode to return to windows?
In my case, I didn't know how to get from C prompt in DOS back to windows. Turning the computer off and back on didn't fix the problem. So, I called a computer place and found out all I had to do is type in "exit" and press enter. I knew there was a simple answer. Just didn't know what the answer was.
Now, back to your situation. Yes, lots of things pop up on the screen at bootup. My guess is that, your father didn't have to do a reinstall, but that's immaterial right now. However, I think that that reinstall might be part of the problem. HP likes to junk up startup with all sorts of programs. And each time dad boots up, he has to wait for all those programs to load up. 80 year olds don't have that kind of time! So, go into start/programs/startup and see what's in there. Take out anything that doesn't need to boot up. (The icons in your tool bar will give you an idea what's in there.) This might also improve overall performance.
Another suggestion: Have him do start/shutdows/restart. Maybe the computer is remembering the old request to restart in DOS mode. Just a WAG.
Which brings up another issue. The battle between turning it off/leaving it on rages. A lot of people (myself included) leave the computer on 24/7. Although that might not set well with him, perhaps he can at least leave the computer on between uses. Will save time.
There are other ways to clear up startup, but this might help. In fact, I think I will post another question on that subject, "cleaning up startup menu."
Give your dad my best wishes.
William Closure
----- Original Message ----- Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 12:07:26 -0800
From: John Dent <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Start Up Help Revisited
Becky,
Since you've received no help so far I'll add this. I have not used Win98
in a while so don't know if this advice is exactly correct:
When booting as the computer configuration lines appear (before the Windows
banner starts) press the F8 key and you should get a choice of ways to boot
the computer. Select the normal Windows startup line. (You should see other
ways to boot including Safe Mode and a Dos Mode. If you don't you are not
there. Simply doing this might restore the correct startup but even if is
doesn't, it is easy to do this on each boot up. I hope someone else will
have better advice.
John D.
At 03:54 AM 3/18/2004, you wrote:
>Hi,
>I understand that maybe every problem has no answers but I thought I'd post
>this question again as I didn't get any replies or suggestions. I hope
>someone can help the 2nd time around. Thanks.
>
>Becky Buehrer
>
>Hello,
>I'm hoping someone can help me help my 80 year old dad with his =
>computer. He has a 4 yr old HP running Windows 98. He has been having =
>trouble for sometime and in an attempt to help himself he at one time =
>when shutting down clicked on "Start in MS DOS" He had no idea what MS =
>DOS is and of course when he tried to reboot his computer had a black =
>screen with white typing. Somehow he managed to get to Windows, was =
>still having trouble and eventually ran his HP Recovery Disk. Even =
>after running it however, when he tries to reboot or start up the =
>computer starts and says "rebooting in MS DOS". The DOS screen comes up =
>with commands running down it for 5 min or so and eventually Windows =
>starts. Then it works OK. Can someone tell me what I can tell him to =
>do to get rid of the DOS completely so that Windows starts automatically =
>without the DOS?? Thank you
>Becky Buehrer
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