Each time I try to modify my Startup and Recovery settings on the System Properties Advanced tab, why do I receive a message asking me to enter a value between 0 and 999 seconds?

A. When you access the Startup and Recovery settings on the System Properties Advanced tab, you might receive the following message:

Click here to view image

You receive this message because your boot.ini file contains a -1 for the timeout value. Boot.ini contains the startup information for your machine, including the amount of time it waits for user input before selecting the default. If you set this value to -1, the system waits forever.

[boot loader]timeout=-1

Unfortunately, the Control Panel System applet doesn't support a -1 timeout value. When you try to access the properties via the GUI, you receive the error message, and the system sets the default to 30. If you want to keep -1 as the timeout value, you need to edit the boot.ini file after you make any other changes. Remember that boot.ini is a system, hidden, read-only file, so you need to use the following command to remove these settings before you can edit it:

attrib c:boot.ini -s -h -r