Extremely angry, but who wouldn't be?? (Please Read)

This is Sac here with yet another of my many computer problems.. :(

My system has Win 2k installed as well as Me on two seperate drives. ME started to pull that "not going to work" crap on me so now I have a problem.

Whenever I start Windows ME, it decides that it doesn't want to load so it just stops loading at the Windows ME screen...

I had just installed Softice. Although this may right off seem like the cause of my problem, I believe it is not the problem directly. I had to install another application dealing with some sort of Windows Debugging thing.. Well, I had installed Softice and this debug program successfully, and restarted Windows without any problems besides my computer going extremely slow.. well this is due to Softice, but it wasn't a big problem cause I fixed it by restarting explorer.exe. Well, I uninstalled the debug program a few times because I was trying to get it on the right directory because smart Microsoft made the program auto install to the C: drive, but that wasn't my needed drive. Well, I was supposed to reboot after I had uninstalled the debug software, but I didn't.. (bad move i guess) and so I installed it again... well I wanted to re read the uninstall message box, so I uninstalled once more... (damn me, still haven't restarted!) didn't restart after that..well, I then re installed it only to restart finally after that.. I started the computer up, and here we are...

I have tried scanning the system for problems from Windows 2k, no results...

I need to know if there is any way I can run the Windows ME Install/Uninstall program within Windows 2k because I could then easilly uninstall the Debug program as well as Softice and then scan and then restart and hopefully it would work...

Thanks for any help,
- Sacofjoea

No idea about doing it through Win2k, but I'm not sure how successful that's likely to be.

I guess it's doing something to your system on startup (the debug app), so it's either getting done while the system is booting up through DOS before it gets into Windows, or it's running something once it gets through that and starts Windows. If it's stopping while it's still in the DOS bit, that's easy enough because you can press F8 (I think it's F8, don't remember too well since I haven't done it in a while) to get the boot menu, and choose to confirm each command as it starts up. When you get to any problem commands, just skip them.

If it's doing it once it gets into Windows, you can try pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete every second or so to bring up the task list, and check if there's anything in there that could be hanging the system. If so, end task it and see if your computer will carry on.

Once you get in, you can try to uninstall, or if that doesn't work then try to fix the problem in ther registry, or whatever else you can think of to try.

Of course none of that might work, in which case I hope someone else can help.

Another method is to rename your autoexec.bat and config.sys so they don't run and see if that cures the problem. If so then you know the problem is in there. Use F8 to boot to dos to rename them.

Well oddly enough Step-by-Step Confirmation isn't on my list of options to select...

I have tried Safe Mode and every other mode, but the confirmation mode isn't there..

hey.. for any of you who are on windows ME, what directory is the autoexec.bat file? because I think the debug program misplaced them somewhere..

autoexec.bat and config.sys are always in the root directory of the C drive. So they're located in:

c:\autoexec.bat
c:\config.sys

would you name all the current files that I should have in my Windows ME root directory? Maybe I am missing another file

Still stuck :(

Where did you get Softice from?? i have been looking for it but whenever i think i find it..it just turns out too be a porn site :(

Sorry i couldnt be of some help though about your problem.

what exactly is your problem. not trying to be mean or anything, it is just that I don't understand what is going on if your computer starts up. if you are starting winMe and it freezes, then at the winme logo just hit the esc key to get rid of the logo and then you can see where it stopped at, or hung up at. so please explain a little better what exactly your problem is.

allright, I have a Gateway computer, so ill post the exact message I gave the Gateway techs:

The other day I installed a program that deals with system debugging. I had rebooted as it asked, and restarted without problem. Well, I had uninstalled the program due to it slowing my computer down extremely. After I did it had asked me to reboot, I clicked no and went about my other business. Well I decided that I did want the debugger, so I reinstalled it, but I had forgotten to reboot. I didn't think this was going to be a big problem, but when I went to restart, I had to manually restart with the off button because my computer froze. Well as I go to restart it, the computer comes to the Windows ME loadup screen and then starts to load, but just stops loading and stays there. I have a second drive and OS installed, so I was able to get on to my secondary OS to attempt to scan the drive for errors and everything. Well nothing came up wrong, I defragged and did everything I know of. Still stopped responding whenever I attempted to start up. This is not the first time this has happened. Before when I didn't have the second drive, I had ME stop during the start up process several times before. I had always assumed it was Windows, but my friend told me that he has had this happen before on his old gateway. I tried to see if I could uninstall the debugger from my other os, Windows 2k, but no luck...

Go Back is not installed... oops.

Thanks for any help you can provide,
- Andre


and as for the guy wanting Softice, I bought it, you should try it sometime.

ok when you are told to reboot from an unistall program all it does is remove the files it couldn't remove when windows was running. so when you reboot it delets those files. so the problem is not because you didn't reboot, there is something else that is stopping it. have you tried to hit esc right when the logo comes up? and instead of renameing your config, autoexec file just rem them out. I think ( i might be wrong on this) but when you rename them it will recreat them to load. so instead just open them up in sysedit or just notepad and put "REM" at the begining of each line. can you post what is in them too? try this and see what it does. also I would get a program call RegClean. I think it is at www.regedit.com and run it to clean out the registry.

Well sorry it does have a function, hitting esc. it is not only my machine. mine is home made, not a proprietary computer. have you even tried it yet? being that it is compact it might not work. as far as changing the certain files on the computer ya it does, but when you uninstall the program it takes the backups of those files and just replaces them. the computer does not need them when it is already started. when you reboot, it will remember to update configuration files even though it has been for days since you uninstalled it. I don't mean to sound edgy but I am trying to cover all the bases so I can help you out on your problem. well it stops loading the os for a reason and that reason is something to do with teh start up process, it is hanging, and the only way to find out is a step-by-step or hitting esc key to watch what it does. do you have virus scan?

Ok, well I tried it before I had posted that last message, nothing, tried it again, nothing.. As far as I know there are no viruses, and I scanned like crazy for other stuff. My friend also owns a Gateway and said that when he had ME it would often do this.. so its probably not just the debugger

the reason I asked if you had a virus scanner on your system is becasue maybe the debugger may have taken some files the your virus scanner needed and it is freezing when it tries to load it or scan your boot partition. I know a few people that have winme and they have not had this problem. until you find the file it is freezing on it might just be safer to reformat or reinstall Me over previous one. I would go with the latter first. did your friend find his problem?

I would go with scoutt on the Esc while loading up thing. Perhaps it doesn't work on ME. I've never used ME and don't plan on ever using it if I can help it.

Instead of that, perhaps you can confirm each command one by one until you find out where the computer is hanging - press F8 after the BIOS has finished doing its stuff and the OS has started up, and you should get a boot menu where you can choose step-by-step confirmation. Well maybe that doesn't work on ME either but I think it should. This is why I don't want to use ME, because it's designed to stop people doing anything remotely complicated as far as I can tell.

The fact it's assembled by Gateway should make absolutely no difference whatsoever. All Gateway do is get some components and stick them together, then put a 'Gateway' label on the box and sell it to you. There is nothing particularly special about the brand name of a PC. If all Gateway PCs have some strange common setup though, I guess that could make a difference, but this doesn't sound like something that's down to the way Gateway configured it.

Quote:

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orignally posted by HarryW

If all Gateway PCs have some strange common setup though, I guess that could make a difference, but this doesn't sound like something that's down to the way Gateway configured it.

---

that is just it, they do. they load a program to the boot sector of the hard drive and it controls the bios and the boot up process, to a certain extent, I might be thinking of compact and HP too.

Hitting esc and f8 does work in ME by the way. but if it is gateway it might not, quarky as they are. Also you are right, I don't think it is gateway either, I think it is stuck on a dll or vxd file that doesn't want to load. when the logo loads you have to be fast about it, timing is all important when doing it to get the f8 screen. But if they have their own logo you will have to pick and choose when to hit the f8, but usually it is right when it loads.

You can just keep pressing F8 or Esc around once a second starting as soon as the BIOS is finished, and you should get the timing right eventually.

i agree

Timing and getting the menu up isn't the problem

Since I have 2 os's installed I have to select which OS i wish to run each time, so when I am at that screen it automatically allows me to go to the SafeMode/Step by step and that window.. BUT for some odd reason it seems that Step-By-Step confirmation is not there.. It was there last time, but must have something to do with some current settings..

As far as the Esc button.. I still cannot get that to function. :(

Are you sure this is the same menu? Not just an OS selection menu? You should be able to get another menu once the actual OS has started to boot (sounds like the menu you're talking about might be the boot manager not the OS).

I am talking about the boot manager, but if you hit f8 while you in there it will take you to the startup selection thing..

When are you pressing F8, when this boot menu is up or when Windows ME is loading?

I have tried both... I think the problem is, is that Win 2k is acting like the main OS, because when it starts up it has Windows 2000 Pro Selective Startup.. if I could get the regular ME one, Im sure I could get Step by Step

Hmm.. do you have the OSes on seperate hard disks? I'm assuming Win2k is on an NTFS partition and ME is FAT32. I was just thinking, if you have them on seperate disks, maybe if you disconnected the Win2k disk it wouldn't boot using any 2k stuff.

They are both on the same hard drive, just set to different drives..
I saw an option somewhere to set ME as the default OS, but I forgot where :(

if it is anyhting like NT4.0 and win98 dual boot you might have a file called boot.ini on the root of C:\. you could change it there. or in Bootsect.dos

Yeah I tried boot.ini but I didn't figure too much out. Take a look:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
C:\="Microsoft Windows"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect /noguiboot

The third line 'default=multi...' looks interesting, but not sure what I would need to change to ME

Select Windows (not 2000) from the OS menu, then very quickly afterwards, keep pressing F8 until the boot menu appears (or should do) :)

try this first

To specify the default operating system for startup

1.Open System in Control Panel.
2.On the Advanced tab, click Startup and Recovery.
3.Under System startup, in the Default operating system list, click the operating system you want to start if you do not select one from the list displayed during startup.
4.In the Display list of operating systems for box, type the number of seconds the list should be displayed before the default operating system starts automatically.

If it was me, I just could not be arsed!! I'd format, re-install. unless I had any vital data, and that can be backed up onto CDR or Tape/Zip/Jaz/Ditto etc.
You can spend ages d*cking about with your settings and not get anywhere. Formatting the partition will also free up a lot of space, as ME is a really sh*t housekeeper and leaves files lying around all over the place.

Talking of ME, I'm fine, thank you.

Well, I did change the OS, but apparently the win 2k menu still comes up

and as far as selecting Windows Me and then hitting f8 really quick.. it cant happen because it instantly goes to the Start up screen..

And there is a lot of vital stuff that I need that wont fit to cds, and I dont have any cds anyways..

:( - Would just like to say thanks for everyone who has helped so far

I try my best.:D

personally I would go into the bios and change the boot option to see the cd-rom. then start up your computer with the winme cd in and re-install it to your winme partition. when the popup window comes up and asked if you would like to keep the older files, select no, that way winme can have fresh files and change those files (if there was any) that the debugger changed. other than not being there to look at it I couldn't suggest anything else, since you can't get to the step-by-step confirmation screen.

Hey, that's a good idea. The most sensible one I've heard on this thread. I'll remember that incase I ever reach a similar problem, as I'm considering doing a duel boot thing with linux.

Sounds good, but would it delete what I currently have oh my drive??

No, reinstalling the OS just overwrites the OS's files, all your application and data files will still be there. The only problem is that Windows won't know they're installed, and so lots of things won't be registered like file types, shared files, blah blah. Bit of a pain in the arse but if you can't do anything when it's booting up then you haven't got much choice.

It's not that bad. Anyway, it's good to reinstall every few months...eventually you work out the best way -- I can redo the whole of my system in about 3 hours.

Like Harry said it won't, but you might have to reinstall some of your programs and/or drivers as they might not work. Also get RID of that debugger. :)

Well what if I exported my registry settings and then reapplyed them when I reinstalled?

I wouldn't do that. it might lead to much bigger problems then you have now. what would you want to export anyway? shouldn't be nothing that you can't re-install. actually, it all depends on which ones you exported. I wouldn't do the whole thing though.

I guess your right on that one.. Well wish me luck! Ill report back in an hour or so :)

Thanks all

well tell me what im doing wrong because it didn't work:

I pressed F1 to change system settings while I was booting up, i then went to Boot Options and selected the first boot device to be CD Rom, but it was allready like this.. so am I going to the wrong place??

- Sac

you're ok, just make sure you have the right cd in the boot, don't know if it will list more than one. next if you have 2 cd devices make sure you have the cd in the right one or it won't see it. if it has been on boot from cd this whole time, that could have been your problem all along..... just kidding. :D

it won't matter if it is on the cd to boot, just leave it there.
doe stha tmake since?

Yeah but I dont think that ME has an auto boot up function from the cd, ill try other cd drive ...

ok well, it wont boot up from it for some reason, maybe just my cd. How, from Win 2k, can I reboot into the command prompt, if I can do that then I can probably attempt an install from there...

Nevermind that, I fixed it and got it working... finally
Just used an old startup disk to get to command prompt and then installed ME.

Ahh back to old crap Windows ME, I forgot how much it sucked :(

Thanks to everyone who helped!
- Sacofjoea

If it won't boot up from CD, it could well be because you have the hard disk before the CD drive in order of bootup prority in the BIOS.

Anyway glad to hear you got it working :)