need computer help asap

[mustangrfast88]

ok here is the issue the girlfreinds dumb ass brother was playing on the computer and had got it in dos mode and cant get it back in windows mode we have tried win and it still dont work anybody eles have any ideas and she says it wont let them type either when it is in dos mod need help asap thank you

[fst 5pto]

maybe try run win?

[wolverine8490]

How old is the machine, and what version of windows is installed on the PC?

[mustangrfast88]

i want to say it is either windows 98 or xp and they tried win

[wolverine8490]

Are the getting the c: prompt when booting and that is it, or are they getting an error message like failed to load ntldr? If it is XP, it would be hard to get it stuck in DOS mode without an error message.

Did you make sure that there is no CD or floppy disk in the PC that it could be booting to?

I know these sound stupid, but sometimes it is the little things we all over look.

[mustangrfast88]

no c prompt at all all it is saying is control alt del at bottom you do that it take back to the same screen and wont let type anything

[Ric54]

no c prompt at all all it is saying is control alt del at bottom you do that it take back to the same screen and wont let type anything

That is not truly DOS mode. Have you tried simply powering it of and then turning it back on ???

Try rebooting it. If that fails reboot it and start hitting F8 before the Windows splash screen. Then pick SAFE MODE. That should let you boot it up with the very bare minimum of drivers etc loading. If you can't find what is causing the problem then I would seek professional help.

[mustangrfast88]

it donteven start windows it stays in dos

[mustangrfast88]

im woundering if her dumbass bro didnt erase something

[FMGT1999]

ok, try rebooting the PC and see if it will come up in windows, also find your windows CD and put it in the CD drive see if it will allow you to boot off of the CD and if not then your going to have to get into the bios setting and turn your CD on to the first device to boot your PC from, either way once you get to the CD try a restore or a reinstall it will now hurt your program files but you might end up having to reload some software. Good luck let me know.

Your welcome to call me and I can walk you thru it over the phone, just pm me and I will send it to you to call me.

Kyle

[mustangrfast88]

i aint even at home and wont be home tell wendesday night im at truck driver and she is telling me over the phone

[ewalt]

There are quite a few problems here. One you can't tell anyone wait OS it is. Sorta important.

Another issue is, to get a truly helpful answer, knowing EXACTLY was it says on the screen is VERY important. I mean, I could sit here an make guesses:

Like maybe it says something along the lines of "No valid boot disk... Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reboot".

Who knows right? You can have people come here all day and make guesses as to what your problem is, and give you pot-shots that likely will not fix it, or even if they do, not fix it in the most effective way. Or you can give VERY detailed information about what is happening, what you see, and what you've tried if anything. Not to mention getting down and dirty with exactly what was done prior to this happening. The fact that's it's broken now, certainly means that admitting to what was done is hardly making the situation worse for the person who broke it, they need to fess up and give as much detail as to what they were doing directly prior to it breaking before they forget.

BTW, for what it's worth, I doubt you're going to boot into safe mode like suggested above. This sounds (of course I'm throwing out a guess), like a boot loader or disk problem. If the OS is not even attempting to load up (for example if you have XP you may see it start to splash up the Windows XP screen during it's initial loading, then crash or soemthing), then it's something that is happening before you get to the OS (boot loader or bios not recognizing disk/failed disk).

I further suspect it's something with the boot loader or a disk problem cause at no point AFAIK windows will never suggest you hit ctrl-alt-delete. But every bios I've ever seen will if you it can't find a valid OS to load......

Again, when asking for computer help, being extremely detailed, and even giving details about stuff you hardly think matters is important. It could be something as simple as he got himself into the bios, changed the boot order and now it's looking to the floppy drive to boot or something. It could be something as bad as a completely failed disk. Details!

[PaulFiveOh]

it donteven start windows it stays in dos

Make sure the HDD is plugged in and has power.

If else, blast it and start fresh.

[wolverine8490]

If you do have to start from scratch, and there is info on the drive you cant loose, you can always pull the drive out of that machine, and plug it into another machine with XP and pull the data off that you need.

I am pretty confident that there is something wrong with the boot loader. Should have an error message like Can not load ntldr.

[mustangrfast88]

ok guys if i can this load im going to try to go to the house and check it out and i will gey back with you and if not i will be back on wednesday night for help

[mustangrfast88]

well i got to the house and it is all messed up some how i need a windows xp disc to get it to work or a ho recover disc all i could do was get into the mdos or cdos or whatever program and thats all i could get into