Article ID: 269249 - Last Review: August 15, 2005 - Revision: 1.1

PRB: After Installation of Visual Studio Products, the System Enters a Reboot Loop

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q269249

SYMPTOMS

When you are installing Visual Studio products, the system prompts you to reboot and then enters a perpetual loop of reboots. The error message notes that the system was unable to find a file (it lists a randomly generated file name, such as "D:\ghijklmnopqrs..."). If you click cancel, the system either stops responding or reboots.

Back to the top

CAUSE

After the installation, Visual Studio Setup left behind a file named Wininit.ini that is used to call Wininit.vxd. These files are used to replace files that are in use at the time the installation is done, and to modify certain system files such as the Vmm32.vxd if necessary

Back to the top

RESOLUTION

Boot into MS-DOS. Use the Command Prompt Only option if you are prompted or boot from a startup/boot disk. Rename this Wininit.ini file as Wininit.old. Type:

ren c:\windows\Wininit.ini c:\windows\Wininit.old

The system will now be able to boot up normally and continue to set up Visual Studio 6.0 products.

Back to the top

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information on Visual Studio Installation problems, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

192392 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192392/EN-US/ ) HOWTO: Troubleshoot Visual Studio 6.0 Setup

Back to the top