Computer boots to cmd windows 98 help me plz?

Question

ok i got this computer for 45 bucks its a ibm.

it has windows 98 on it and i know it does bc it boots to the windows 98 window thing then suddennly it switches over to command prompt??

what does this mean and how might i fix this?

please help a man out..... thanks

Answer 1

is there a disk in the drive or a floppy disk in the floppy drive? it might be set to boot to cmd because the hard drive has an error too

Answer 2

On 98 you will probably need to completely re-install the OS. This will not be much use as there are no longer any updates to bring it in line with early 2000 internet use, which it needs.

Answer 3

I suggest you format it and install a fresh Operating System on it. Chances are that it is corrupted.

I suggest you get at least Windows 2000 (Windows XP more preferable) but before you do that, please check and make sure that you have at least 512MB of RAM (1GB for XP).

Answer 4

Usually, it should throw an error message out if it can't boot into Windows fully.

Try entering this into DOS:

cd C:\Windows

win.com /D:M

The first command switches you to the Windows directory. The second should relaunch Windows 98 in safe mode.