Screen freezes before desktop comes up

[Markf]

I need some help please. I have a Dell Pc running on Windows ME. My computer starts up and then freezes on an empty blue screen with the hourglass. When I start up in Safe Mode, I can get to Scan Disc, which starts scanning and then freezes after 15 seconds or so. If I cancel Scan Disc, I can get into Safe Mode desktop, which then freezes up after 15-30 seconds.
I have no Rescue Disc, but I have all the discs that Dell gave me from the original software installed on the computer.

[Strider]

Hi Markf,
You can go to bootdisk.com and download a file that will create an emergency boot disk. With it you can boot to a command prompt and run scandisk from DOS.
When you ran scandisk from Safe Mode, did it really freeze? If it hit a bad sector, sometimes it'll worry about the sector for a *long* time before it moves on.
My first guesses are a corrupt Windows file or a bad sector on the hard drive where a Windows file is stored. Try to get Scandisk to run from DOS; I think it's important to see what it finds.
HTH,

[Markf]

Thanks for the reply. I think the problem is fixed, but I don't know why. I had neglected to mention that prior to my freezing problem, I had taken out the CPU fan(which was squealing) and oiled the bearing and reinstalled. After I did this, the freezing problem started.


I then downloaded a boot disk from bootdisk.com for the ME system, and booted the computer up. That worked, but while I was doing this someone else told me that perhaps the fan was not running, and the CPU could be overheating and causing the freezing. So I opened up the case and checked; the fan was running. I tightened up the fan mounting screws a little bit, connected and reconnected the 3 pin power lead, and jiggled slightly the heat sink. For some reason the computer started booting up fine, without the boot disk!

I have no idea what happened, and now am concerned that the freezing problem will re-emerge because of some intermittent fault somewhere.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks