Win ME boot trouble

[kbkatz]

I recently formatted and reinstalled Win ME on my father's computer, lately he has been having trouble turning it on... sometimes it just freezes. Any suggestions? or should I tell him just to buy Win XP...

[glc]

At exactly what stage of the boot sequence is it freezing? It may be a hardware problem, not a ME problem.

Got some system details - and have there been any hardware changes recently?

[kbkatz]

No hardware changes for quite some time.

I believe it freezes on the boot screen, and then he has to shut it off and try to reboot. He went through this process 4 times before getting it to start up.

750Mhz CPU, 384MB Ram.

[GaryRouth]

Did you reformat/reinstall because of a virus?

See if your father can boot into Safe Mode (tapping the F8 key during startup) and run an AntiVirus/AntiSpyware scan from there. If his computer is on a home network, disconnect from the network before trying this.

If the computer connects to the Internet by DSL or cable, is it behind a firewall? Does it have up-to-date AV?

If the freezing stops in Safe Mode, it's likely a software problem. (virus, spyware, driver problem, data corruption . . .) [when you reinstalled, did you update the motherboard drivers as well?]

If the freezing continues even in Safe Mode, start testing your hardware: test the hard drive with diagnostics from the drive manufacturer's website [they are free downloads]. MemTest86+ gets a lot of recommendations for testing memory [there's a link on the forum somewhere - or you can use Google or visit download.com]. ...And to rule out a freeze from an overheat situation, see how things go with the case open [check if the fans are spinning, check the temps]

...And, just for details sake: when you mention freezing on the boot screen, are you referring to the WinMe splash screen, or something else? Is this a Dell, Hp, Compaq, Gateway, IBM?

[late edit: here's a link for MemTest86+, if you end up needing it http://www.memtest.org/ ]

[kbkatz]

Orignally formatted because of a lot of needless stuff installed (some spyware). Formatted updated everything, installed updated NAV, installed Spybot and Ad-Aware. No problems until recently, no hardware changes. I beleive it freezes on the ME splash screen.

[GaryRouth]

Did you reformat/reinstall with a Recovery disk or a WinMe CD? Did you restore any data after the reinstall? If so, did you scan the backups first? [I'm asking these since some of the worm-sort of viruses can cause boot-time trouble. It's possible the machine is re-infected, and Norton might be compromized.]

See if the computer can get to Safe Mode, and check how things go while in there. Might look in on Device Manager, too - to make sure there are no flagged devices. Also while in Safe Mode, look in System Information - "Software Environment/Startup" and see if the processes starting in there look right (check at sysinfo.org if you're not sure about a process).

And it won't hurt the hardware to test it a bit: the worst it could do would be to take up some time.
. . . Gary

[p.s. ..is this machine on a Lan, & does it have a broadband connection to the Internet? -- if so, is it running without a firewall? ]

[kbkatz]

It isn't connected to a LAN or any type of broadband, just dial up. It was formatted with a Window ME disk, not a recovery disk. Unfortunately the computer is not here with me so any ideas will have t be relayed via telephone.

[GaryRouth]

Good luck with it: hope it's a small phone bill rather than a large one!