thanks again glee.

i explained in a reply to "andrew carter" that this little
event actually happened on my mum's computer. i wrote the
post in first person so as to avoid a bunch of Qs as i had
walked her thru all i could to a point.

after renaming the autoexec.bat and config.sys files as
you suggested we could, she was finally able to boot to
windows. i then had her send me the contents of each of
the files. they are as follows --

CONTENTS OF THE AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE:

@ECHO OFF

@ECHO OFF
REM To make a DOS Boot Diskette; See the file
C:\DOSBOOT\DOSBOOT.TXT
set path=c:\windows\command
c:\windows\smartdrv/q

LH c:\mouse\cloaking
c:\mouse\mouse ps2

SET PROMPT=&p&g
SET TEMP=C:\windows\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\windows\TEMP
SET BLASTER=A220 I5D1 T2

REM Set the Audio card
C:\WINDOWS\CWDINIT.EXE/A

Rem DOS Sound Mixer Program. Preset CD Volume to ON.
C:\windows\Cwdmix/M=9,9/W=13,13/C=13,13/L=13,13/X=1/F=15,15
/I=X

REM
REM The following lines have been created by Windows. Do
not modify them.
REM
C:
CD C:\WINDOWS
CALL C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM
C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM/WX

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~

CONTENTS OF THE CONFIG.SYS FILE:

@ECHO OFF

@ECHO OFF
REM To make a DOS Boot Diskette; See the file
C:\DOSBOOT\DOSBOOT.TXT
set path=c:\windows\command
c:\windows\smartdrv/q

LH c:\mouse\cloaking
c:\mouse\mouse ps2

SET PROMPT=&p&g
SET TEMP=C:\windows\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\windows\TEMP
SET BLASTER=A220 I5D1 T2

REM Set the Audio card
C:\WINDOWS\CWDINIT.EXE/A

Rem DOS Sound Mixer Program. Preset CD Volume to ON.
C:\windows\Cwdmix/M=9,9/W=13,13/C=13,13/L=13,13/X=1/F=15,15
/I=X

REM
REM The following lines have been created by Windows. Do
not modify them.
REM
C:
CD C:\WINDOWS
CALL C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM
C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM/WX

DOS=SINGLE
REM To make a DOS Boot Diskette; See the file
C:\DOSBOOT\DOSBOOT.TXT
REM Configure the PNP devices
device=c:\icu\dwcfgmg.sys

DOS=HIGH,UMB
buffershigh=1-
fcbshigh=4
fileshigh=30
lastdrivehigh=Z
stackshigh=9,256
Device=C:\WINDOWS\Himem.Sys/testmemff

rem The following line will get you more ram, but noEMS
rem Device=C:\WINDOWS\Emm.386.exe RAM NOEMS
Device=C:\WINDOWS\Emm386.exe RAM
DEVICEHIGH=c:\cdrom\Oakcdrom.sys/D:IDECDOOO

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~

this is of course, all greek to me. however, her files
are drastically different from mine.

i have win98se on a packard-bell, and winxp on a compaq.
config.sys has nothing at all in either system.

autoexec.bat on the packard-bell/win98se has one line.
autoexec.bat on the compaq/winxp has 7 very short lines.

thanks for your help. i'll be looking forward to your
diagnosis.