Soooo...I need some major help. When I start up my computer with Windows and log in, a command prompt-esque window comes up and displays an error. I do as the message says me to, only to be left with a blank, white screen. Yesterday I deleted a small partition and put Ubuntu on it. I'm not sure whether I should take that into consideration because in the time period between my Ubuntu installation and now, Windows was working fine without any noticeable issues. Any thoughts on what's causing this and how to fix this?

there is no solution, shoot yourself

you have a virus

What does the message say? How did you install Ubuntu, via partition, or on a seperate drive?

Via partition...I just checked and I couldn't log into that either. <...> Lol.

The error message is:
16-Bit MS DOS Subsystem

C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe
The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction.
CS:0dddIP:0134OP:C6 94 02 c2 52 Choose 'close' to terminate the application.

People are telling me it's spyware or virii!

What "small partition" did you delete and put Ubuntu on? Windows is installed alongside a "small partition" that is necessary for the operation of the computer; did you make a new partition or install to that one?

The NTVDM CPU is a virtual machine for 16-bit DOS programs. I won't get into the specifics unless you want me to, because they're fairly technical, but your computer seems to be having trouble loading the VM that allows older DOS programs to run.

Go on download.com and find ad-aware spywear scan and see if theres anything in there trying to eat your computer

Yeah man, I already scanned and stuff.

The partition I deleted and installed Ubuntu on was 6.4 GB. Do the numbers ring any bells? ><

>.>

On a standard Windows installation, no. The partition installed alongside Windows is only about 8 MB. It's the master boot record, and if you're starting up okay, you certainly didn't torch that, as deleting the MBR would prevent Windows from even loading. (Although, it is possible that you could have overwritten the MBR with Ubuntu's boot loader, probably GRUB, but…nah, if that happened, Windows shouldn't be starting up at all.)

userinit.exe is a program that is a part of Windows that manages Windows initilization procedures, such as starting up network and managing the shell. It's possible it can become infected with a virus, though.

I guess I should just assume this is caused by a virus because I see no other solution to el dilemma. I'm going to be reformatting tomorrow anyway. Thanks so much for helping me understand all this madness. =) EL THREAD-O may be closed! Fosho.