Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnewsk!markg
From: markg@cbnewsk.att.com (mark.r.gibaldi)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Windows 3.0 Protected mode problem
Message-ID: <1990Jun12.141352.8909@cbnewsk.att.com>
Date: 12 Jun 90 14:13:52 GMT
References: <YaP1NHK00Uh701wWxf@andrew.cmu.edu> <3130004@hplsla.HP.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 23

In article <3130004@hplsla.HP.COM> davidr@hplsla.HP.COM (David M. Reed) writes:
>I have seen this error (Invalid COMMAND.COM; Halted) many times.  In fact,
>I am trying to trace down why it is happening periodically on 3 different
>systems here (one an 8 MHz '286, one a 20MHz '386, and a 25MHz '386), each
>running different main applications (GRAPHICS GALLERY on one, VENTURA
>PUBLISHER on another, and a custom application on the 3rd).  
>

I saw this problem when I accidentally erased autoexec.bat and config.sys on
my Win 3.0 equipped machine.  The problem came up when I had replaced my
system files with slightly different versions.  I made three changes and
the problem has not arisen since.  I may have just been lucky so far, but
in case this might help, hear are the three changes.

1) made command.com permanent in my Config.sys "SHELL" with "/p".
2) placed my command.com in the root directory instead of "c:\dos".
3) Set my COMPSPEC environment variable.

Hope this helps.

Mark R. Gibaldi
AT&T Bell Laboratories
mrg@cblph.att.com