[RESOLVED] WIN ME not starting

[jakkwb]

Greetings all-
I cannot get Windows ME to completely boot up without locking up tight. The background image comes on, then the mouse stops moving, with the HD light remaining on.

Starting in SAFE mode does the same thing.

Any ideas?

[Votan]

Was ME doing well before this happened? If so, what was your latest activity just before it happened?

[jakkwb]

it was working fine until Saturday, the person says. They were not doing anything out of the ordinary, it just started not working.

Is there anyway to see the programs activated at startup from dos?

[Votan]

That cannot be the case. They must have been doing something. You say they were doing something but in their judgement it was not out of ordinary. It could have been the case and they don't realise it. Ask your folks to describe what they were doing. Something must have been changed.

I am not sure if DOS would be helpful in this case. An option with DOS is to run scandisk. May be the problem lies there. Another option is to run MSD and check the items ont at a time.


[This message has been edited by Votan (edited September 11, 2001).]

[dlagace]

could be some bad ram exchange it my new or used ram to test.

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"What works for One person May not work for Another"
God Is My Judge

dLagace=DANIMAL

[jakkwb]

OK, another problem. I do not have a startup disk for this system (they didn't make one). So, I cannot boot into regular or safe mode without it locking up. I cannot use a DOS boot disk because the c: and d: drive aren't recognized.

Any suggestions?

[Votan]

Check the BIOS if it does recognize the drives. If that doesn't do, check the drive cable if it is well inserted on the card and on the drives. You migh as well check the integrity of the cables.

[jakkwb]

BTDT. This system is driving me nuts!!

Does anyone else have any suggestions? I cannot do anything with this system so far.

[Ya_know]

It has always been my practice, that if you can't get it working with the hardware currently installed, try switching things around. Add their drive as a slave or secondary (whatever) to another PC that will read FAT 32, and see if you can access the drive through explorer. Also, have you installed ME to a new HD on the problem PC? Either of these two should start exposing the weakness’ in the system, and point you into some direction.

If you can't figure it out, but can get their drive to work on another PC, back up the data, and reload the OS from scratch to the original drive. Then restore personal data to the same locations, and install all of the applications. That will take a max of 4 more hours straight time. That will get it off of your bench today, instead of waiting for a miracle solution...

Unless nothing will work on the problem PC. Then you have to dig a little deeper...

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"We will not distinguish between those that perpetrated this act of terror, and those that harbor and condone this action."

[jakkwb]

Is there any way to make a Win-ME startup disk without having to actually boot WIN-ME?

I have a 98 startup disk I was going to boot from, but it gave me a warning about "this could cause file damage" blah blah..

Thanks

Al

[lesbentley]

If you have access to the net you can download an ME boot disk from:

http://www.user-friendly.net/download/download.htm



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Regards, Les.