When I turn the laptop on it starts to boot up and shows the Windows ME logo screen for about 5 seconds and then the screen goes blank with a cursor flashing constantly (kinda like in command prompt but cannot type any commands).
Does anyone have any ideas to what cound have caused this and how I can fix it. All suggestions will be a huge help coz I have to admit I'm lost!

Hello LazyLamb, welcome to PCHF.

Windows ME is not the most stable operating system at the best of times, in fact it's the most unstable operating system Microsoft ever made!

Your problem was most likely caused by an application or driver that was installed/uninstalled during your last session. It's also possible that your problems could be malware or virus related. Do you remember anything like this that could have happened on your last session?

Can you see if your able to access Safe Mode, by pressing F8 before the Windows logo screen?

Yes I am able to enter Safe Mode, its only when trying to boot in normal mode that won't work.

OK, did anything happen on your last session that you can remember? If your sure that no drivers or software have been installed/uninstalled on your last session, the first step will be to run through PCHF Prework on my signature, and post both AVG and HijackThis logs back here. We can then pass those logs to one of our security team members for analysis. Do you have some way of transporting the logs between PC's? Possibly a USB Pen or floppy disk?

I don't know if anything happened the last time it was used as I wasn't the one using it, and the person who was can't remember what happened, if anything. So I can't be sure drivers were not updated or software inadvertently installed. Does that make any difference to how or which logs you want me to post?

Hey lamb,

No difference. If we had an idea what happened, then it would have just made the whole process a little quicker, but it's absolutely no problem, I'm sure well get to the bottom of it.

Still the same logs though (AVG and HiJackThis).

I have tried to do the PCHF Prework as you suggested to get the AVG and HijackThis logs to post here, but when in safe mode my usb drive is not recognised and they are too big for a floppy disk, so I am unable to install and run either of these applications to get these logs. Is there another way or am I fighting a lost cause???