ME not loading

[Ashlee]

Last night I installed software for Sony Walkman onto my home Vaio desktop,
after installation I was instructed to re-boot system. System will only
re-start to Windows ME initial screen. I assume my ME needs to be
re-installed, but I do not have the original installation disk, is there
someplace online to find it? Or is this some kind of complete system failure
which will require repair from a professional? Any thoughts?

Thanks so much!

[Mike M]

Can you boot to Safe Mode? If so run System Restore and roll your system
back to a checkpoint created before you installed the Sony software or
alternatively try uninstalling that software.

To boot to Safe Mode:
Keep tapping either the Ctrl or F8 key as PC is powered up. This should
then load Win Me with a minimal driver set, low resolution and colour
depth and with the words Safe Mode in each corner of the screen.
--
Mike Maltby




Ashlee > wrote:

> Last night I installed software for Sony Walkman onto my home Vaio
> desktop, after installation I was instructed to re-boot system.
> System will only re-start to Windows ME initial screen. I assume my
> ME needs to be re-installed, but I do not have the original
> installation disk, is there someplace online to find it? Or is this
> some kind of complete system failure which will require repair from a
> professional? Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks so much!

[Ashlee]

Thanks so much for your response, Mike! I was able to otain the startup menu
using F8, but the start up did not progress beyond the initial Microsoft ME
screen. Any other ideas?

Thanks!
Ashlee

"Mike M" wrote:

> Can you boot to Safe Mode? If so run System Restore and roll your system
> back to a checkpoint created before you installed the Sony software or
> alternatively try uninstalling that software.
>
> To boot to Safe Mode:
> Keep tapping either the Ctrl or F8 key as PC is powered up. This should
> then load Win Me with a minimal driver set, low resolution and colour
> depth and with the words Safe Mode in each corner of the screen.
> --
> Mike Maltby
>
>
>
>
> Ashlee > wrote:
>
> > Last night I installed software for Sony Walkman onto my home Vaio
> > desktop, after installation I was instructed to re-boot system.
> > System will only re-start to Windows ME initial screen. I assume my
> > ME needs to be re-installed, but I do not have the original
> > installation disk, is there someplace online to find it? Or is this
> > some kind of complete system failure which will require repair from a
> > professional? Any thoughts?
> >
> > Thanks so much!
>
>

[Mike M]

Ashlee,

First let's see if the problem can be resolved by restoring just a backed
up copy of the registry. Boot to DOS using your EBD (Win Me emergency
boot floppy) choosing either option 2 or 3 from the menu. Now at the A:\>
prompt enter
SCANREG /RESTORE
and follow the prompts and from the five dates offered choose the most
recent that predates the problems. This should restore the registry but
nothing else to the state it was in when backed up. Can you now boot into
Win Me? If so now run system restore to roll back not just the registry
but also any changed files to a checkpoint that predates the problems.

If scanreg /restore doesn't get you going then let's see if you can get to
and use System Restore without having to launch Explorer (that's the
desktop, etc.).

The method that follows requires you to boot to DOS using your boot floppy
and editing system.ini and replacing the line
shell=explorer.exe with one reading
shell=C:\windows\system\restore\rstrui.exe
Now remove the EBD and see if you can start Win Me and boot direct into
System Restore. For more details see KB 279736 "How to Start the System
Restore Tool from a Command Prompt"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=279736) which mentions using
progman.exe after which you can then locate and run rstrui.exe however
using rstrui.exe as above works equally well.
--
Mike Maltby



Ashlee > wrote:

> Thanks so much for your response, Mike! I was able to otain the
> startup menu using F8, but the start up did not progress beyond the
> initial Microsoft ME screen. Any other ideas?