CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 4: Diagnosing and Troubleshooting in the Windows OS       9  Troubleshooting the Windows Start-up “Journey”

Windows NT Boot Sequence 1 Troubleshooting Black Screen Error Messages

MS-DOS has its command prompt in command.com, it so for user–OS communication. Io.sys is for hardware-OS communication, and msdos.sys is the OS, a kernel (completely different from msdos.sys in Windows).

Windows 9x family has the same files, though some of them play a different role, you already read about that in previous chapters.

Remember the Shift key, it can help you troubleshoot. Hold this key will bypass loading CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files in DOS and Windows 9x family.

Hold the Shift key while you see the Windows splash screen and you will bypass loading of Startup programs.

Services are special kind of applications on Windows NT family. They load on start up before any user logs on. They do not belong to a user and do not communicate with logged on users, they rather write to event logs. You can use Msconfig.exe tool to disable some service that caused trouble. Service Management Console is a tool where you can stop, start, troubleshoot and find out about service. Type services.msc in the Start > Run menu.

If some service fails to start run Event Viewer to see why. There are also dependencies between services; one service may need another.

Windows NT Boot Sequence 1 Troubleshooting Black Screen Error Messages