[thechat] Not webdev related** Dell w/winME startup problems

[Jorah Lavin]

**I hope that computer-related but non-web subjects are accepted here. This 
didn't seem like a "thelist" type topic.

If it is, tell me so gently and I'll take it there.
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My WinME Machine... two problems
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I've got two things going on with my ME machine, and I'm getting fed up. 
One problem has been going on for about two years, or maybe since I got the 
machine.

I dial up using the internal modem. I'm going along, uploading, 
downloading, visiting sites, getting and sending email... boom, my 
connection drops. Local provider claims it must be noise on the phone line. 
Sometimes happens after an hour, sometimes not for 7 hours. Well, can't be 
helped, thank goddess I'll be moving to RR cable soon. Problem is, I can't 
re-connect to the Internet until I restart my machine. The "My Connection" 
process goes fine, it LOOKS as if I'm connected to the 'net, but I'm not. 
Oddly, if I deliberately disconnect, I can then re-connect with no problems...

Anyway, that is a pain, but a minor one. My machine just gets restarted a lot.

BUT...

In the last couple months, the machine has started hanging part way through 
the restart process. It will start fine in Safe Mode, and will start fine 
about 1-in-4 tries for normal startup, but the other 3-of-4 times, it hangs 
partway through; not the same point! Sometimes, the Quicklaunch toolbar 
stops loading 2/3 of the way through, othertimes the Start button never 
shows up and it hangs with the desktop wallpaper showing, mouse pointer in 
the middle, nothing else happening. And so on. I do maintenance every 
Saturday, downloading patches, defragging with the built-in defrag software 
in safemode or with Diskeeper Lite. I have tried running various Registry 
cleanup tools, with no noticeable improvements or degradation in status, 
and a few months ago I even re-installed the OS using the OEM disks. I've 
looked at WinME sites online, nothing...

Can any of you help? Restarting and re-restarting can take up to 20 
minutes... the only other symptom I can tell you about is that the machine 
has almost never been happy about shutting down. When I do Start>Shut Down, 
it is about 3-in-4 chances that it won't power down... the screen goes 
blank but the power never shuts off.

-Jorah