[symigem]

help. I have a 9yr old Compaq Armada with a Windows ME operating System. It has 5.58MG Hard Drive with I think 1.86mg free. I have a lot of software on this computer.
When I defrag, I close all progams and uneccessary programs using the cntrl, alt, del option. But the defrag often restarts up to 10 times. It often helps if I keep the mouse moving and dont allow the screen saver to go up.
My computer freezes frequently and often my only option is to push the off button.
My computer restarts itself without having many programs running to spur it in to overheating.
Often when I open different windows or browsers they mix information and writing blurs etc.
I started Dr Watson and it mentioned mmtask.exe, when I ran the 'safe mode' troubleshooter...(because my computer started in safe mode involuntarily) I found 'mmtask.exe' in the selective startup process and I turned it off. The computer then started up normally.

My computer runs well, often enough for me to not want to buy another computer....

Any suggestions? Or should I bite the bullet and buy a new computer.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS, ALL ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED

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Hi, I'm no expert, but my pc used to re-start the de-frag 10 times. I switched everything off with cntrl, alt, del option, but it still kept stopping. What I had to do was click on START/PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/SYSTEM TOOLS/SYSTEM IMFORMATION, then on the window that pops up click on TOOLS/SYSTEM CONFIGURATION UTILITY, then where it says "selective start up", un-tick ALL the boxes. When you click "OK", the computer will ask to re-start, click "OK". When it starts up, the desktop picture will look like the computer is in safe mode, but you should be able to do a de-frag without it stopping. When it has finished, repeat the process and tick all the boxes again, and it will re-start as normal. I don't know If it will de-frag in safe mode, you could try, and you can always turn the screen saver off to de-frag. My method and safe mode, I think the screen saver is disabled anyway. I think you may have something running in the background on your computer, that stops the de-frag, It may be something like windows update, or it could be spywear, do you use "spybot" and "Adaware"? My method seams to stop everything running, so you can run the de-frag.

[tanda]

Hi, I'm no expert, but my pc used to re-start the de-frag 10 times. I switched everything off with cntrl, alt, del option, but it still kept stopping. What I had to do was click on START/PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/SYSTEM TOOLS/SYSTEM IMFORMATION, then on the window that pops up click on TOOLS/SYSTEM CONFIGURATION UTILITY, then where it says "selective start up", un-tick ALL the boxes. When you click "OK", the computer will ask to re-start, click "OK". When it starts up, the desktop picture will look like the computer is in safe mode, but you should be able to do a de-frag without it stopping. When it has finished, repeat the process and tick all the boxes again, and it will re-start as normal. I don't know If it will de-frag in safe mode, you could try, and you can always turn the screen saver off to de-frag. My method and safe mode, I think the screen saver is disabled anyway. I think you may have something running in the background on your computer, that stops the de-frag, It may be something like windows update, or it could be spywear, do you use "spybot" and "Adaware"? My method seams to stop everything running, so you can run the de-frag.

[Tyger]

You'll find it faster to defrag and run check disk in Safe Mode. Windows ME has problems with managing memory and disk space, those problems were one of the big reasons MS rushed out with XP only a year after they introduced ME. When the memory fills up the system will freeze and you'll need to reboot. You may recover some of your disk space by removing unneeded restore points.

Windows 2000 is a much better system and uses about the same memory, you need about 128mb for those versions of windows to work well.

[SRX660]

Please keep a subject to a single thread. here is no need to post the same question twice, so i am going to close this thread.

SRX660