1 Question on Boot & 1 on Device Mgr, please...

Question RE: Boot ~

Can someone please tell me, if I were to modify this Notebook boot log (or whatever it's known as), which I have attached two (2) screens of, would it get rid of the incessant BLACK Start Screen this PC gets at each and every start-up, which requires choosing one of the five or six different profiles it lists/displays, please?

Question RE: Device Manager ~

On the third, attached screen-shot, would anyone be willing to help me sort this (the Yellow punctuations) out, please?

This is me moms PC...I would REALLY like to get her as straightened-out as is possible.

Thanks in advance,
g...

 

Hi Glenn,

This is what your boot.ini should look like:

So open your boot.ini in Notepad and click File>Save As then choose a name such as bootold.txt and save a copy.
Then delete all existing lines in the original boot.ini and paste the above quoted text. Save the file and exit notepad.
Before restarting--reopen boot.ini and verify that the text looks like the above. If it matches go ahead and close Notepad.
Reboot and you should be down to two choices. Choose the first one with the (new) and make sure it boots.

If it boots OK then you can go back and edit boot.ini again and change the timeout from 30 to 3 to lessen the wait time before automatically booting but still leaving three seconds to make a choice.

****
Let's get this boot.ini in shape before tackling Device Manager.

 

or a simpler way, Start > Run, type msconfig <Enter>. Click the BOOT.INI tab and change the timeout in the small box on the right to 0. This will cause the system to boot straight into XP.

 

@sach2 - Don't think that's correct. Both lines are pointing at the same partition, so only one of them is required, in which case no timeout is required.

 

Hi Earthling,

There are two different Windows installations on the same partition (Windows and Windows2). Windows2 is working while Windows is not. (This is a continuing problem. Repair might still be possible for Windows so we want to leave that available just in case we want to attempt repair. )

 

Hi sach2 - what makes you sure that it isn't (just another) duplicate entry? And in any case a zero timeout is the simplest solution surely?

 

Okay - WOW! ~ I am just now seeing this (these responses)...I simply had a moment to check email, so, I am going to need an hour or two to get back to this, and then I will have the remainder of the evening/night......

Thank you all very much, I will get back in here and onto this just asap!

 

It never fails...long story, anyway, if anyone is available, I am going to look at these directions NOW, and attempt to proceed...

 

Ok.

I "guess" I got this done (the first part?).

There are "bunches" of things named "boot" now...boot this, and boot that - boot etc., and boot whateva'...

I'm going to attach them here.

When I went to Save As "boot.ini", it said that already existed, did I want to replace it, I voted; "Yes". I suppose that was correct, please?

 

Okay - yes, all seems well ... rebooted, only two choices now, 1st one (pre-highlighted) was "(New)", selected it, and then, after the Restart, I went with a "5-second" delay, just a personal preference which I realize/understand I can always change.

I had it set (during this troubled time) to the MAX "999", because I typically will start/boot a machine, but be multi-tasking (attempting to, anyway) and might have even walked-away from the machine to do other things, and wanted to allow as much time as possible, just in case I got pulled-away for several minutes...

Anyway, now here we are.....

 

Good job, Glenn.

At least the boot.ini is cleaned up.

DavidGP will be much better at helping with drivers. You probably should wait on him.

Which model Dell is this again? Do you have SP3 installed? (Right-click My Computer and select Properties. It should verify the OS and service pack)

The PCI device is the modem.
Do you have sound on the computer?

 

Hi David...

Ok, I don't know if I (we) are prepared for this part o the operation or not, but firstly, I must clear-up some confusion I created (imagine THAT!).

Where I had mentioned "Notebook", and you ran with it, I was meaning to say (had meant to say) "NotePad" ... hope this doesn't throw too much of a wrench into things...? :-o

 

*EDIT* YES, Sound is working! AND I RID THE "MASS STORAGE" YELLOW PUNCTUATION BY SAFELY REMOVING HARDWARE IT SEEMS - ATTACHED
Yes - and Thank you.

Dell model# 4500S ("S"="Slim") and yes, SP3 "IS" installed.

The "PCI" yellow exclamation point marking has LONG been displayed on this machine...so, I'm not even "exactly 100% sure" what is meant by; "Modem" (the little DSL box that our ISP provided to us?)......

 

Okay - looks like we're done for the night...will follow-up at any and all available points in time tomorrow (whatever the HECK THAT means ha), and see if there are any remnants of issues I can deal with on moms machine here..

Thank you again very much - see ya soon, and Take Care!

G'night,
glenn.............