wininit.ini?? problems 1

[leda]

Hi there!
I had this similiar issue about 6 months ago and you guys helped me out.. Now I am just trying to find out why this is happening.
The computer, is an HP Pavilion, running W98. What happened was the computer would not boot up. You would turn it on, you would see the Windows 98 screen, then the power would shut off.. I was told to delete the wininit.ini file.. I deleted it, and now everything is fine..
What creates the wininit.ini file? How is this happening?
Any help?
Leda

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

You know by now that you cannot change a file that is in use. Wininit.ini is usually created by install programs. The changes are placed there and then the program tells you that Windows needs to be restarted to complete the install. Upon restart the boot sequence processes wininit.ini before Windows is loaded. This file is then deleted. If you search for this file while running Windows you should not be able to find it because it is not supposed to exist in the normal environment. Sometimes the file gets corrupted and it hangs you computer when you start up, because it's looking for something it can't find. That's why when it exists and you delete it the computer loads Windows without problems.

 

[leda]

You're exactly right. I guess he was trying to install a new program when this happened..
If (when) it happens again, should a person just forget about installing that new program, or just delete the file when it can't boot up, and try installing it again?
Thanks for all of your help.
Leda

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

I would delete it and try the install a second time. If I still had problems then I would consider that the install program may be corrupted and forget about installing that program. If it was a download you might want to try downloading it again.