System.ini gone cryptic??

[WJWheels]

Can't boot normally or the mouse doesn't show up and I get a "restore desktop" thing. Using Windows ME with no system restore files available.

If I start in safe mode, I do get use of the mouse. When I run msconfig and open the system.ini tab, there's but 3 lines of garbage - wierd thick black lines, backward p's, a few letters, etc. I think some of you know the kind of stuff I'm talking about.

Anyway, I completely re-installed the system and still get the same thing. Mouse only available in safe mode and the gobblededook in system.ini.

Any suggestions? TIA

[Cricket]

Have you checked for a boot sector virus?

Cricket

[galaxian]

Restore the Registry

Do Start > Run > Scanreg /Restore

Choose a date when the PC was working OK

And reboot

[WJWheels]

Updated my PC-cillin rescue disk set and ran that complete in dos. It showed no bugs.

No good dates in Scanreg. I guess the owner had been messing with it too long. I did scanreg /fix and no help.

I opened system.ini with notepad and deleted the ugly lines. All of the rest of the regular info - Boot, Windows, etc. shows up when I read it in notepad, but not in msconfig.

Anyway, after deleting the ugly cryptic lines, windows will open normally WITH the mouse even. I'll mess with it a while and try to see what caused the problem.

Thanx Cricket & Galaxian.