Windows ME, Boot Problems

[phetjiu]

Hi All,
I have aproblem with my son's computer, which has been going off and on for a while now, but has finally given up the ghost.
It was giving us a boot problem, it refused to boot when you first turned the power on, but if you left it for a while and re-booted it, it would boot up, so I formated the drive and re-installed ME, however the problem persisted, so I tried to re-install again but now it just boots to the window where it has four choices to choose from, normal, logged, safemode, and another which I am at a loss to remember at present. No matter which one I choose, when I hit the enter key I get the same message, which is. The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEMIFSHLP.SYS
Then under that line it says: The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWSSYSTEM\VMM32.VXD
Then it says: Type the following name of Windows Loader( eg. C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32.VXD).
Anyone come up with this problem before, or anyone know what the messages are reffering to and how can I rectify them.
The computer is a home built one with a 1.7 MHZ, AMD processor.The memory is 512MB The mainboard is an MSI, KT2 Combo, it has the sound and VGA implanted.
I would be more than grateful if some good person could point me in the general direction so I can nail the son of a gun, it's driving me crazy. I look forward to any replies.
Cheers.
phetjiu http://www.windowsbbs.com/images/smilies/confused.gif
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[Strider]

Hi,
One possibility is your hard drive is failing. When you could get it to boot, was it much slower than usual? Did Windows want to run Scandisk with a full surface scan every time you powered on, even though you shut down correctly? Can you boot from an emergency boot disk and access the C: drive from a DOS prompt?
Try the boot disk and then post back with any symptoms you can remember, and we'll try to work through the problem.

[phetjiu]

Hi Strider,
Thanks for your fast response.
No I can't get it to boot with a Start / Boot disk.
When I used to get it to boot up, it seemed to work normally, the speed was normal and I didn't seem to get the scandisk window, only if I didn't shut it down properly.
I then tried to reinstall ME to rectify the problem, but since then it only boots to the window which I described in my first thread, even using the boot disk.
I have run Scandisk on the drive several times and each time it has said, there are no problems were found on C drive.
When I was able to boot to windows, I did run my anti virus system, plus I scanned the drive with Spybot S&D and also CS Shredder, but they found nothing, so I would point to an HD failure, but I am not that experieced enough to make a definite decission.
I hope you can come up with some other ideas, before we decide it is the HD.
I look forward to yor reply.
Cheers
phetjiu:(

[Strider]

Hi,
From what you describe, I think it's not the hard drive.
Booting from floppy should take you to a DOS prompt without trying to load Windows (except it will say 'Starting Windows **' where ** is 98 or ME or whichever OS created the boot disk). If you are not seeing quite a bit of floppy drive activity when booting, then perhaps the A: drive is not first in your boot sequence in the BIOS, and you're still booting from the C: drive, which appears to be corrupted.
I'll keep thinking about this and come back later. Anyone else perusing this thread feel free to jump in :)

[Strider]

Hi again,
I'm still confused... If the problem were only that you had some corrupted files, the reinstall should have fixed that. If there were a few bad sectors, Scandisk should have flagged them and the reinstall avoided them.
I'm still not sure it's a HD problem, but I suggest downloading the diagnostic software from your hard drive manufacturer and running it. That should at least let us eliminate the hard drive as the source of the problem.

[Hal2000]

This may or may not help ou. I had a similar problem with an XP machine that slowly started giving boot problems. It drove me crazy.

It was actually the CDROM that had failed in some way that caused the data lines to be held active on the ribbon cable and the Hard Drive would not boot

Disconnect all cables from CDROM (power and ribbon) and attempt to reboot.

[phetjiu]

Hi Strider & Hal2000,
Just like to let you know that I solved the boot problem.
I changed the HD and while I was doing that I also gave ME the flick and installed Windows XP Pro.
The computer is now back to normal.
I would like to thank you both for your imput, i am extremely grateful.
Hope to catch you both next time.
phetjiu:wave:

[illbill]

Hi,
From what you describe, I think it's not the hard drive.
Booting from floppy should take you to a DOS prompt without trying to load Windows (except it will say 'Starting Windows **' where ** is 98 or ME or whichever OS created the boot disk). If you are not seeing quite a bit of floppy drive activity when booting, then perhaps the A: drive is not first in your boot sequence in the BIOS, and you're still booting from the C: drive, which appears to be corrupted.
I'll keep thinking about this and come back later. Anyone else perusing this thread feel free to jump in :)

Strider --


I'm having a problem as well which is similar. I ran the boot disk and it said "starting windows 95" and takes me to the A:\ dos prompt.

I have no idea what to do from there?

It says my config.sys has an error when I try to install Windows ME.

[Strider]

Hi Illbill,
We need some more information. What OS are your running--Win 95 or ME?
Describe your symptoms afresh with any error messages you see or can remember if you can't boot into Windows. Post all the information you can give us as a new thread in the appropriate forum, e.g., Windows ME. You'll get more people viewing your questions than you will be adding on the end of an old thread.
If you post in a forum other than Win ME, send me a private message and tell me where to look. However, there are many knowledgeable people perusing these forums, so you may well have a solution before I can get back to you :cool: