[fittogo]

Just got rid of my old PC running ME and purchased an eMachines running XP. The machine is great, but, on startup, I get black and white DOS type screens, for a few seconds and then it goes into the normal color XP startup window. Is it possible to bypass the DOS portion? On my Dell laptop with XP I don't see any of the DOS boot up. Secondly, when I startup I get a very small window on the main screen which, I just determined, related to MS Works Portfolio. Does anyone know how I can delete that screen from automatically popping up?
Many thanks to all who answer.

 

[BMR777]

I have a feeeling the dos box is from a program preinstalled. To remove that, and MS Works Auto Startup, go to Start>Run> type "msconfig" w/o quotes. Go to startup tab, and uncheck any unnessairy programs, including Works. Click OK and Restart, and when the PC reboots, clikc the check on the MSConfig Message, and click OK.

Should solve it.
BMR777

 

[fittogo]

XP Startup Issues

Thanks for the response. I did get rid of the MS Works window, but did not know which items to uncheck for the DOS windows. Also, and I posted this prob lem under 'printers' yesterday, I get several hardware/printer windows during startup which I X out of. My printer works, but apparently the PC does not recognize(?) it. I did uncheck the HP Printer block but still get the windows during startup.

Would greatly appreciate any further advice you can provide (to include the overall printer issue). Thanks, again.

 

[whodat]

try a system restore

 

[Sarge]

Um, what you're seeing is most likely not a DOS shell at all. I think you're seeing either the POST screen, the BIOS post-POST information display, or a Video BIOS, Chipset BIOS, or other on-board or Add-in card BIOS comeing up to breifly display it's configuration stsus.
Since you didn't say what model of E-Machines you purchased, I have no idea what your configuration is like, so I can't tell what all.

BIOS means Basic Input/Output System
POST means Power-On Self Test
DOS means Disk Operating System

And, no: The name "POST" is not afffiliated in any way with the makers of Grape Nuts. :grin:


Now, as for the MS Works issue: I highly recomend that you dump MS Works. Install and use OpenOffice in place of MS Works.
You can get OpenOffice from www.openoffice.org
It's an open-source project, currently at the Release Candiate stage of version 2.0 (That is, OpenOffice 2.0 RC-1 is now available for download.)
The entire OpenOffice suite is free. You never have to pay for any of it, they don't have anything they want to sell you, and there's no ads.
Best of all? OpenOffice doesn't do pop-ups.

Need more info? Wanna know what a BIOS screen is and why you don't need to be afraid of it? Have a bannan-grapenut cake recipie you wanna share? Post your comments below and I'll try and answer you back.

 

[fittogo]

XP Startup Issues

Sarge: Thanks. My PC is an eMachines T3302, and your first paragraph comment(s) are probably correct. I only want the Works stuff to use MS Word and have no problems with deleting the rest of it. However, with the first reply to my post (doing the msconfig thing) I got rid of the Works popup.