CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 4: Diagnosing and Troubleshooting in the Windows OS

Windows 9x Boot Sequence 1 2 3 Real World Scenario: How Might a Black Screen Error Happen?

Bad or Missing Command Interpreter

You know that command interpreter is in command.com file. It’s there since the very old DOS days, and it’s there in Windows 9x family. So, if you get this message command.com is the file which missing or corrupt.

Here are some facts that can help you find out how that might have happened: The Windows 95 COMMAND.COM file is renamed to COMMAND.W40 when the system is booted to a previous version of MS-DOS. If this file is corrupted or missing, the above error message appears when you start Windows 95 normally.⁷⁶

BSOD error is being written to System log. You can view it with Event Viewer.

The MS-DOS COMMAND.COM file is renamed COMMAND.DOS when the system is booted into Windows 95. If this file is corrupted or missing, the above error message appears when you bypass the normal Windows 95 startup by pressing either the F4 or the F8 key at the Starting Windows message.

Scan for errors with SCANDISK, you might find a disk or file system problem.

Most probably, Boot.ini has bad entries. If you are installing Windows NT4, make sure you use FAT16, not FAT32.

NTLDR means NT Loader, so you can get this problem only on NT family.⁷⁷

Solution: All you need to do is to have a file called NTLDR on the root of your boot drive. You have the file in \i386 directory of Windows CD and you can just copy it (it is not compressed). You can do this in Recovery Console with a copy command.

Windows 9x Boot Sequence 1 2 3 Real World Scenario: How Might a Black Screen Error Happen?