How can I fix a nested while-loop that runs infinitely?

Question

So I have another problem that I am running into. I have been trying to fix this for about an hour with no luck. I cannot get this nested while loop to work. The code should be putting in lines according to the input but currently it goes on forever.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void PrintLines(char characterValue, int characterCount, int lineCount);

// I'm going to have to change char characterValue to int characterValue
// will this still work if they are in seperate files?

void PrintLines(char characterValue, int characterCount, int lineCount)
    {
        while (lineCount--)                 //This is the problem
        {
            while (characterCount--)
            {
                cout << characterValue;
            }
            cout << "\n";
        }


    }

int main()
{

    char Letter;
    int Times;
    int Lines;

    cout << "Enter a capital letter: ";
    cin >> Letter;
    cout << "\nEnter the number of times the letter should be repeated: ";
    cin >> Times;
    cout << "\nEnter the number of Lines: ";
    cin >> Lines;

    PrintLines(Letter, Times, Lines);



    return 0;

When I do this to check if it works properly. I see that it does...

        while (lineCount--)                 //This is to check
        cout << "\n%%%";
        {
            while (characterCount--)
            {
                cout << characterValue;
            }
        }

It prints :(If Lines = 4 and Times = 3 and Letter = A)

%%%
%%%
%%%
%%%AAA

Answer 1

    while (lineCount--)                 //This is the problem
    {
        while (characterCount--)
        {
            cout << characterValue;
        }
        cout << "\n";
    }

After the first iteration of lineCount, characterCount is negative. You keep decrementing it, and it will never reach zero again until it overflows.

Do:

    while (lineCount--)                 //This is the problem
    {
        int tmpCount = characterCount;
        while (tmpCount--)
        {
            cout << characterValue;
        }
        cout << "\n";
    }