Sorry for being so slow, robertelo :)
Firstly you need to go to your templates - because you're new, I'll just give you the URL, which is
http://www.yoursite.com/modules/system/admin.php?fct=tplsetsThere you'll see several things, including a link "Clone" (below actions), click on it and enter a new name for your template (I'll just call it "basic") and press enter.
Then you'll see a whole list of text, just scroll down and click on Back to template set manager.
You'll see that there is a new row, called basic. Click on "System [List (27)]" (number can be different from 27). You should click on List.
Then you should see the file "system_redirect.html". Further in that row, you'll see Edit. Click on it.
Then you'll see something like this:
DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd'>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=<{$xoops_charset}>" />
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="<{$time}>; url=<{$url}>" />
<title><{$xoops_sitename}>title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="<{$xoops_themecss}>" />
head>
<body>
<div style="text-align:center; background-color: #EBEBEB; border-top: 1px solid #FFFFFF; border-left: 1px solid #FFFFFF; border-right: 1px solid #AAAAAA; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAAAAA; font-weight : bold;">
<h4><{$message}>h4>
<p><{$lang_ifnotreload}>p>
div>
<{if $xoops_logdump != ''}><div><{$xoops_logdump}>div><{/if}>
body>
html>
Delete all of that and replace it with (if your text is white)
DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd'>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=<{$xoops_charset}>" />
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="<{$time}>; url=<{$url}>" />
<title><{$xoops_sitename}>title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="<{$xoops_themecss}>" />
head>
<body>
<div style="text-align:center; background-color: #000; border-top: 1px solid #FFFFFF; border-left: 1px solid #FFFFFF; border-right: 1px solid #AAAAAA; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAAAAA; font-weight : bold;">
<h4><{$message}>h4>
<p><{$lang_ifnotreload}>p>
div>
<{if $xoops_logdump != ''}><div><{$xoops_logdump}>div><{/if}>
body>
html>
or with this (if your text is black):
DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd'>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=<{$xoops_charset}>" />
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="<{$time}>; url=<{$url}>" />
<title><{$xoops_sitename}>title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="<{$xoops_themecss}>" />
head>
<body>
<div style="text-align:center; background-color: #FFF; border-top: 1px solid #FFFFFF; border-left: 1px solid #FFFFFF; border-right: 1px solid #AAAAAA; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAAAAA; font-weight : bold;">
<h4><{$message}>h4>
<p><{$lang_ifnotreload}>p>
div>
<{if $xoops_logdump != ''}><div><{$xoops_logdump}>div><{/if}>
body>
html>
This simply changes the background (it should do this), and you can choose your own color too (but it's better to keep a basic color), and it does not change the color of the text (that's deciced in your theme itself, so you need to modify that, but in that way, you break other stuff).
Then you press on submit.
Then you go to your general settings (
http://www.yoursite.com/modules/system/admin.php?fct=preferences&op=show&confcat_id=1) and you scroll down, until you see "Default template set" - next to it should be a dropdown menu with "default" shown. Click on it and choose basic (or however you named the template) and scroll down and click on Go!.
This should solve your problem
Kevin.
(a thank you is always welcome)