please explain this POST message

[Jhill]

I installed a TV wonder card on windows 98 SE and now when i reboot my computer i get a message on the POST screen saying "bad command or file name" "if you want to install your OS now please insert your installation disc" then if i wait a second my pc boots up normally anyway.

Does anyone know what could be causing this message and how to remove it?

Thanks for any help

 

[bsobel]

Excuse me if this is really obvious, but did you accidently leave a non bootable floppy or cd in the machine?
Bill

 

[Zlash]

Or the driver CD in your CD Rom?

 

[Jhill]

I did have the ATI tv wonder setup cd in the machine when I first got this message, but then I removed it and I still get the message.

 

[bsobel]

"or cd", I didn't mean a CD in the floppy drive
Bill

 

[Escalade]

Look in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files for something unusual. You might also find a CONFIG.BAK/AUTOEXEC.BAk file in the root directory as well... might give you some clues to what was changed or added.

 

[Jhill]

Ive never looked in these files before. Is there any way to tell what is normal or not?

 

[dunkster]

Some programs and device drivers install an autoexec.bat and/or config.sys file on install. You may also have an autoexec.bat or config.sys on your system from a device no longer in your system.

One of these older autoexec.bat and/or config.sys files is probably the root of your problem.

You could probably isolate this by inspecting your bootlog.

98SE doesn't really need any autoexec.bat or config.sys unless there is some older/special hardware device that isn't natively supported by 98SE.

I run 98SE with no autoexec.bat or config.sys file. Any left over from the Win95 era have been removed long ago.

I suggest you search 'My Computer' for all instances of 'autoexec' and 'config'. Printscreen or note them, and systematically rename them with '.bak' or '.old' extensions and reboot. My guess is that you will need none of them. If you don't need any of them, delete them.

Hope this helps!

 

[Escalade]

<< Ive never looked in these files before. Is there any way to tell what is normal or not? >>


Post the contents here, should be easy to spot the non-DOS system stuff... at least to a DOS guru!

Another possibility is their install program added something to the WIN.INI or SYS.INI files, but I don?t think they get processed that soon, in other words; I don?t think error messages from the INI files would appear on your POST screen.

Anyway... post the contents of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files and let us have a look.

 

[Jhill]

Thanks for all your help. It turns out that I deleted a few little .exe files that were cluttering up my c drive. They weren't in any folders just on my drive. I reinstalled them and now it boots up fine.