I don't know the history of this Compaq as it was given to me. But, it starts up fine and loads ME fine until the second icon appears in the system tray. It continues running for about a second then stops. The cursor is movable but there is no response when clicking on any of the desk top icons. Eventually the cursor freezes also. Safe mode starts and works fine. I have tried scandisk but it found no problems. I ran the anti-spyware applications that are on it to check for spyware. I tried to restore it to a restore point but it won't restore. I was going to try running sfc but it threatens me with all kinds of dire consquences if I dare to run a DOS program in safe mode. I own a copy of Win2k upgrade and frankly, if I could get it to run I'd instsll it over ME. Anyway, if you have any suggestions I will certainly appreciate them. Thanks.

Hello sandpiper,

Welcome to PCHF.

Windows ME is the most unstable version of Windows ever released by Microsoft TBH, but your problem may be a program starting up.

- Whilst in safe mode, go to Start, run and type msconfig, OK.
- Click on the Startup tab and you'll see all the programs starting up here. You can disable them all or one at a time. One at a time is probably best, and then reboot each time in Normal to see if your problem returns.

That was it! The second try was successful and it boots fully now. Thanks again, I really appreciate the help.