Windows ME Boot Problems

Hi,

I originally posted this to the Spyware Forum, then to the Software, now I'm at Hardware.

The history is this. I'm running Win ME on a P4 processor with 128 M Ram. Initially the problem was that the system stayed at the Windows ME screen for about 5 mins. before booting to the desktop. In safe mode, the machine booted up right away. When selecting Selective Boot, only when I load all Windows drivers do I see the delayed boot.

The software forum pointed me to a Microsoft site page which suggested that I should disable devices in the device manager and enable them one at a time to determine what could be causing the problem.

I disabled the devices, and the problem seemed to go away. But now, I can't enable the Floppy disk or Hard disk controllers. They all have the yellow exclamation point. When I attempt to update the drivers, Windows says that I'm already using the best driver for the device. I tried disconnecting the drive from the motherboard and restarting, and I still can't get the yellow exclamation points to go away.

If I start in safe mode, windows seems to see the drives, but the CD drive is not visible in Windows explorer.

Please help. Any ideas?

 

solution...

back up.... reformat drive.... and install ANYTHING besides WINDOWS ME