[hanthearchitect]

I'm running Windows ME on a Dell desktop. It's about 5 years old. When I turn on my computer, It starts out normal with the dell graphic logo, then the windows ME graphic logo comes up, but immediately changes to the Windows ME Start-up Menu. The top line reads "windows did not finish loading on the previous attempt" It gives me 30 seconds to choose from 4 options. #1. Normal 2. Logged/bootlog.txt 3. safemode & 4. step by step configuration. I tried safe mode first, but it just took me to a screen that says "windows protection error. you need to restart your computer." So I start it up again & it cycles back to the start up menu. I tried all the other 4 options, including the step by step configuration & every time, it just comes back to this same menu.

What Can I do to get out of this "loop"? Can I save any information in my hardrive?

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This is almost always caused by faulty hardware on a Windows 98*Guest system. First thing to do is this: -> http://www.memtest.o...1.65.floppy.zip (download this, extract it, run it, let it make a floppy disk and boot off the floppy disk on the Dell machine, then let it run for a few hours).

[Neil Jones]

This is almost always caused by faulty hardware on a Windows 98*Guest system. First thing to do is this: -> http://www.memtest.o...1.65.floppy.zip (download this, extract it, run it, let it make a floppy disk and boot off the floppy disk on the Dell machine, then let it run for a few hours).

[peterm]

Hi hanthearchitect
Ok being a dell my guess is you do not have a windows ME startup disk.
Go to www.bootdisk.com and download a startup disk to do this you need a computer with a floppy drive.
When you download the ME disk to the desktop put a floppy in the drive and double click on the file you downloaded this will create the boot disk. Do not download to the floppy the file needs to extract itself to the floppy. Beware all the dta on the floppy will be lost.
Put the floppy in the Dell and turn the machine on.
1. If you are running Windows Me, start your computer with the startup disk.
2. At the MS-DOS prompt, type cd\windows\command, and then press ENTER. Where windows is the name of the folder in which Windows is installed.

3. At the C: prompt, type scanreg /restore, and then press ENTER.
4. Select the previous registry you want to restore, and then press ENTER.NOTE: A properly working registry has the word "Started" next to the date.

5. When you receive notification that you restored a properly working registry, press ENTER to restart your computer.
Cheers
Peterm

Edited by peterm, 10 July 2006 - 12:06 PM.