ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen

[Roxy]

All:

A few days ago I lost the use of Win-ME, as my primary OS, the other being
Windows 2000. When I startup, ME goes through the normal routine up to the
green screen of Windows -- but there are no programs to chose from, no
system tray, no start buttons. Something must have gotten wiped out and I
just can't figure which. I can't start any program because there are no
icons and control-alt-del doesn't have anything to close.

Help!

Roxy

[Roxy]

All:

I'll rerun this one just to include another problem.
>
> A few days ago I lost the use of Win-ME, as my primary OS, the other being
> Windows 2000. When I startup, ME goes through the normal routine up to the
> green screen of Windows -- but there are no programs to chose from, no
> system tray, no start buttons. Something must have gotten wiped out and I
> just can't figure which. I can't start any program because there are no
> icons and control-alt-del doesn't have anything to close.
>
I also couldn't get system restore to work -- as much as I tried to click on
the bold dates, it said that it couldn't do it. And that was the start of my
problems mentioned above.

> Help!
>
> Roxy

[Mike M]

Your boot problems:

When did these start? What changes did you make to your system in the session
immediately before these problems started? How are you multi-booting, are you
using a third party product such as Boot Magic or using Windows 2000 boot
manager? Can you still boot into Win 2K?

Your System Restore problem:

I don't think your problem with system restore has anything to do with your
other problems and sounds as if you haven't installed the 290700 patch that
has been required for system restore to create usable checkpoints since Sept
2001.

You can see whether you have installed the patch or not by checking the
version of the file smgr.dll in your windows\system folder. If v4.90.0.3003
then you have updated but if v4.90.0.2533 you have not and need to do so at
once.

Note that when installing the patch it will flush your restore folder
and create a single new checkpoint on completion. This cannot be avoided
since checkpoints created with the old version of smgr.dll cannot be restored.

It is also possible that at one stage you did install this patch but have
subsequently reinstalled Win Me over itself using the Win Me CD. Doing this
causes the original, broken, version of smgr.dll to be reinstalled.

If required the patch can be obtained either via Win Me's AutoUpdate, the
Windows Update site or from the Microsoft Windows Catalogue accessed from the
Windows Update site. For more details see MS KB 290700 - "Checkpoints That
You Create After September 8, 2001 Do Not Restore Your Computer"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290700) which also has a link to the
patch.
--?
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



Roxy > wrote:

> All:
>
> I'll rerun this one just to include another problem.
>>
>> A few days ago I lost the use of Win-ME, as my primary OS, the other
>> being Windows 2000. When I startup, ME goes through the normal routine
>> up to the green screen of Windows -- but there are no programs to chose
>> from, no system tray, no start buttons. Something must have gotten wiped
>> out and I just can't figure which. I can't start any program because
>> there are no icons and control-alt-del doesn't have anything to close.
>>
> I also couldn't get system restore to work -- as much as I tried to click
> on the bold dates, it said that it couldn't do it. And that was the start
> of my problems mentioned above.
>
>> Help!
>>
>> Roxy

[Roxy]

Mike:

Thanks for your prompt reply. The problems began when ME would freeze after
running for some 15 minutes. I figured it was some virus and did scans but
no virus were found. I tried restoring the system to a previous
configuration but it always said restoration was unsuccessful. Then I
reinstalled ME over itself to see if it would restore damaged system files.
Now, it just won't go past the background green color desktop.
I have had Boot Magic for several years -- first using Win98 and Win2000,
then I upgraded Win98 to ME. And it had worked like a charm, until this
week. Win2k is working fine. I'm sending these messages from my Win2k
configuration.

The problem with system restore is that from Win2k I can't upgrade with the
patch and in any case my impression is that it will not help much if it
won't go back to a previous version -- starting from scratch after
installing the patch.

My smgr.dll is version 4.90.0.2533

Thanks.
Roxy


"Mike M" > wrote in message
...
> Your boot problems:
>
> When did these start? What changes did you make to your system in the
session
> immediately before these problems started? How are you multi-booting, are
you
> using a third party product such as Boot Magic or using Windows 2000 boot
> manager? Can you still boot into Win 2K?
>
> Your System Restore problem:
>
> I don't think your problem with system restore has anything to do with
your
> other problems and sounds as if you haven't installed the 290700 patch
that
> has been required for system restore to create usable checkpoints since
Sept
> 2001.
>
> You can see whether you have installed the patch or not by checking the
> version of the file smgr.dll in your windows\system folder. If
v4.90.0.3003
> then you have updated but if v4.90.0.2533 you have not and need to do so
at
> once.
>
> Note that when installing the patch it will flush your restore folder
> and create a single new checkpoint on completion. This cannot be avoided
> since checkpoints created with the old version of smgr.dll cannot be
restored.
>
> It is also possible that at one stage you did install this patch but have
> subsequently reinstalled Win Me over itself using the Win Me CD. Doing
this
> causes the original, broken, version of smgr.dll to be reinstalled.
>
> If required the patch can be obtained either via Win Me's AutoUpdate, the
> Windows Update site or from the Microsoft Windows Catalogue accessed from
the
> Windows Update site. For more details see MS KB 290700 - "Checkpoints
That
> You Create After September 8, 2001 Do Not Restore Your Computer"
> (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290700) which also has a link to the
> patch.
> --?
> Mike Maltby MS-MVP
>
>
>
> Roxy > wrote:
>
> > All:
> >
> > I'll rerun this one just to include another problem.
> >>
> >> A few days ago I lost the use of Win-ME, as my primary OS, the other
> >> being Windows 2000. When I startup, ME goes through the normal routine
> >> up to the green screen of Windows -- but there are no programs to chose
> >> from, no system tray, no start buttons. Something must have gotten
wiped
> >> out and I just can't figure which. I can't start any program because
> >> there are no icons and control-alt-del doesn't have anything to close.
> >>
> > I also couldn't get system restore to work -- as much as I tried to
click
> > on the bold dates, it said that it couldn't do it. And that was the
start
> > of my problems mentioned above.
> >
> >> Help!
> >>
> >> Roxy
>
>

[Mike M]

Roxy,

Forget about system restore for now. It's broken because you have reinstalled
Win Me over itself and never reinstalled the patches. It's too late for
system restore to help you now as any checkpoints you might have are useless.

If you have your Win Me partition visible when running Win 2K this could be
the cause of your problems. Personally I never feel it a good idea to expose
different operating system partitions to each other preferring instead to keep
all system partitions hidden other than the one currently in use.

Your current problem seems to results from having reinstalled Win Me over
itself, perhaps because you didn't first remove Internet Explorer 6. In all
honesty I don't feel that your original problem warranted reinstalling Win Me
but I appreciate different users approach their problems from different
directions.

Given what I know about the history of your problem I would try to reinstall
Win Me yet again. If you do choose to reinstall Win Me this can cause
problems especially if you had previously upgraded from IE5.5 to IE6 (See
below) and possibly if you had installed an early (beta) version of Windows
Media Player 9. Any WMP problems can be avoided by renaming
c:\windows\system\wmploc.dll to wmploc.old before reinstalling Win Me. You
will also need to reinstall some critical patches even though the Windows
Update site will not show them as being required due to the original
"IsInstalled" flag remaining set in the registry. The Belarc Advisor
(http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) would help you here in identifying
which patches needed to be reinstalled.

If you have installed IE6 ideally this needs to be uninstalled before
(re-)installing Win Me. If this is the case you might want to have a look at
MS KB 312451 - "How to Remove Internet Explorer 6 by Reinstalling Windows"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=312451) and also KB 293907 - "How to
Uninstall Internet Explorer 6" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=293907).
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



Roxy > wrote:

> Thanks for your prompt reply. The problems began when ME would freeze
> after running for some 15 minutes. I figured it was some virus and did
> scans but no virus were found. I tried restoring the system to a previous
> configuration but it always said restoration was unsuccessful. Then I
> reinstalled ME over itself to see if it would restore damaged system
> files. Now, it just won't go past the background green color desktop.
> I have had Boot Magic for several years -- first using Win98 and Win2000,
> then I upgraded Win98 to ME. And it had worked like a charm, until this
> week. Win2k is working fine. I'm sending these messages from my Win2k
> configuration.
>
> The problem with system restore is that from Win2k I can't upgrade with
> the patch and in any case my impression is that it will not help much if
> it won't go back to a previous version -- starting from scratch after
> installing the patch.
>
> My smgr.dll is version 4.90.0.2533

[Rick T]

Hmm, I thought WinME was a blue background (or maybe I just play with my
own configuration too much) while green was NT.

Can you get into SafeMode ?

IMHO, you should've reinstalled BootMagic immediately after you
reinstalled WinME.


Rick


Roxy wrote:
> Mike:
>
> Thanks for your prompt reply. The problems began when ME would freeze after
> running for some 15 minutes. I figured it was some virus and did scans but
> no virus were found. I tried restoring the system to a previous
> configuration but it always said restoration was unsuccessful. Then I
> reinstalled ME over itself to see if it would restore damaged system files.
> Now, it just won't go past the background green color desktop.
> I have had Boot Magic for several years -- first using Win98 and Win2000,
> then I upgraded Win98 to ME. And it had worked like a charm, until this
> week. Win2k is working fine. I'm sending these messages from my Win2k
> configuration.
>
> The problem with system restore is that from Win2k I can't upgrade with the
> patch and in any case my impression is that it will not help much if it
> won't go back to a previous version -- starting from scratch after
> installing the patch.
>
> My smgr.dll is version 4.90.0.2533
>
> Thanks.
> Roxy
>
>
> "Mike M" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Your boot problems:
>>
>>When did these start? What changes did you make to your system in the
>
> session
>
>>immediately before these problems started? How are you multi-booting, are
>
> you
>
>>using a third party product such as Boot Magic or using Windows 2000 boot
>>manager? Can you still boot into Win 2K?
>>
>>Your System Restore problem:
>>
>>I don't think your problem with system restore has anything to do with
>
> your
>
>>other problems and sounds as if you haven't installed the 290700 patch
>
> that
>
>>has been required for system restore to create usable checkpoints since
>
> Sept
>
>>2001.
>>
>>You can see whether you have installed the patch or not by checking the
>>version of the file smgr.dll in your windows\system folder. If
>
> v4.90.0.3003
>
>>then you have updated but if v4.90.0.2533 you have not and need to do so
>
> at
>
>>once.
>>
>>Note that when installing the patch it will flush your restore folder
>>and create a single new checkpoint on completion. This cannot be avoided
>>since checkpoints created with the old version of smgr.dll cannot be
>
> restored.
>
>>It is also possible that at one stage you did install this patch but have
>>subsequently reinstalled Win Me over itself using the Win Me CD. Doing
>
> this
>
>>causes the original, broken, version of smgr.dll to be reinstalled.
>>
>>If required the patch can be obtained either via Win Me's AutoUpdate, the
>>Windows Update site or from the Microsoft Windows Catalogue accessed from
>
> the
>
>>Windows Update site. For more details see MS KB 290700 - "Checkpoints
>
> That
>
>>You Create After September 8, 2001 Do Not Restore Your Computer"
>>(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290700) which also has a link to the
>>patch.
>>--?
>>Mike Maltby MS-MVP

>>
>>
>>Roxy > wrote:
>>
>>
>>>All:
>>>
>>>I'll rerun this one just to include another problem.
>>>
>>>>A few days ago I lost the use of Win-ME, as my primary OS, the other
>>>>being Windows 2000. When I startup, ME goes through the normal routine
>>>>up to the green screen of Windows -- but there are no programs to chose
>>>>from, no system tray, no start buttons. Something must have gotten
>
> wiped
>
>>>>out and I just can't figure which. I can't start any program because
>>>>there are no icons and control-alt-del doesn't have anything to close.
>>>>
>>>
>>>I also couldn't get system restore to work -- as much as I tried to
>
> click
>
>>>on the bold dates, it said that it couldn't do it. And that was the
>
> start
>
>>>of my problems mentioned above.
>>>
>>>
>>>>Help!
>>>>
>>>>Roxy
>>
>>
>
>

[Rick T]

Rick T wrote:

> Hmm, I thought WinME was a blue background (or maybe I just play with my
> own configuration too much) while green was NT.

so my theory at this point is obviously that you're somehow getting a
******* mix of WinME and Win2K startup files due to the WinME
reinstallation corrupting the MBR (which it does).

>
> Can you get into SafeMode ?
>
> IMHO, you should've reinstalled BootMagic immediately after you
> reinstalled WinME.

Reinstall BootMagic, first; that may cure it or at least make it workable.

Rick
gotta remember that... coffee first, *then* posting... yeesh, that's the
second one today. The bum shoulder isn't helping much either, let me
tell you.

>
>
> Rick
>

[Roxy]

Mike:

I don't really understand when you say if the partitions are visible. In
case it helps, ME is on C: and Win2k is on F. When I open Windows Explorer
in Win2k, I can see everything and C: files are available if I need to open
them. Programs is another matter.

I did not remove IE6. The problem is how do I remove IE6 if I can't get ME
to complete the installation process. I can't work with the registry because
when I do run regedit, the one that comes up is Win2k; the operating system
working at the time.

Rick:

I can start in safe mode but ME won't go into the final phase of the
startup.

If I may be so bold, why would I need to reinstall BootMagic -- on booting
I'm given the choice between ME and Win2k and if I chose Win2k it works
fine.

Thank you.

Roxy


"Mike M" > wrote in message
...
> Roxy,
>
> Forget about system restore for now. It's broken because you have
reinstalled
> Win Me over itself and never reinstalled the patches. It's too late for
> system restore to help you now as any checkpoints you might have are
useless.
>
> If you have your Win Me partition visible when running Win 2K this could
be
> the cause of your problems. Personally I never feel it a good idea to
expose
> different operating system partitions to each other preferring instead to
keep
> all system partitions hidden other than the one currently in use.
>
> Your current problem seems to results from having reinstalled Win Me over
> itself, perhaps because you didn't first remove Internet Explorer 6. In
all
> honesty I don't feel that your original problem warranted reinstalling Win
Me
> but I appreciate different users approach their problems from different
> directions.
>
> Given what I know about the history of your problem I would try to
reinstall
> Win Me yet again. If you do choose to reinstall Win Me this can cause
> problems especially if you had previously upgraded from IE5.5 to IE6 (See
> below) and possibly if you had installed an early (beta) version of
Windows
> Media Player 9. Any WMP problems can be avoided by renaming
> c:\windows\system\wmploc.dll to wmploc.old before reinstalling Win Me.
You
> will also need to reinstall some critical patches even though the Windows
> Update site will not show them as being required due to the original
> "IsInstalled" flag remaining set in the registry. The Belarc Advisor
> (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) would help you here in
identifying
> which patches needed to be reinstalled.
>
> If you have installed IE6 ideally this needs to be uninstalled before
> (re-)installing Win Me. If this is the case you might want to have a look
at
> MS KB 312451 - "How to Remove Internet Explorer 6 by Reinstalling Windows"
> (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=312451) and also KB 293907 - "How to
> Uninstall Internet Explorer 6"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=293907).
> --
> Mike Maltby MS-MVP
>
>
>
> Roxy > wrote:
>
> > Thanks for your prompt reply. The problems began when ME would freeze
> > after running for some 15 minutes. I figured it was some virus and did
> > scans but no virus were found. I tried restoring the system to a
previous
> > configuration but it always said restoration was unsuccessful. Then I
> > reinstalled ME over itself to see if it would restore damaged system
> > files. Now, it just won't go past the background green color desktop.
> > I have had Boot Magic for several years -- first using Win98 and
Win2000,
> > then I upgraded Win98 to ME. And it had worked like a charm, until this
> > week. Win2k is working fine. I'm sending these messages from my Win2k
> > configuration.
> >
> > The problem with system restore is that from Win2k I can't upgrade with
> > the patch and in any case my impression is that it will not help much if
> > it won't go back to a previous version -- starting from scratch after
> > installing the patch.
> >
> > My smgr.dll is version 4.90.0.2533
>
>

[Rick T]

Be as bold as you want... All M$ OSes screw around with the
MasterBootRecord when you install them. The MBR is where the boot manger
is. As to whether reinstalling the boot manager will actually accomplish
anything, I have no clue, IMHO couldn't hurt.

As far as uninstalling IE6 and WMP9 before you reinstall Windows over
itself, Microsoft expects you to psychically know that.

Rick
</rant>
It doesn't bug me much when M$ doesn't add functionality to a previous
OS... what *does* bug me is when they can't be arsed to fix things that
don't work right to begin with. Refresh Installation is a M$ prescribed
procedure... so why does the user have to put up with all this crap
about uninstalling WMP9 and IE6 and even after all that have to
reinstall patches blindly. Too difficult to add a refresh.bat file to
the EBD or something?
</endrant>

Roxy wrote:

> Mike:
>
> I don't really understand when you say if the partitions are visible. In
> case it helps, ME is on C: and Win2k is on F. When I open Windows Explorer
> in Win2k, I can see everything and C: files are available if I need to open
> them. Programs is another matter.
>
> I did not remove IE6. The problem is how do I remove IE6 if I can't get ME
> to complete the installation process. I can't work with the registry because
> when I do run regedit, the one that comes up is Win2k; the operating system
> working at the time.
>
> Rick:
>
> I can start in safe mode but ME won't go into the final phase of the
> startup.
>
> If I may be so bold, why would I need to reinstall BootMagic -- on booting
> I'm given the choice between ME and Win2k and if I chose Win2k it works
> fine.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Roxy
>
>
> "Mike M" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Roxy,
>>
>>Forget about system restore for now. It's broken because you have
>
> reinstalled
>
>>Win Me over itself and never reinstalled the patches. It's too late for
>>system restore to help you now as any checkpoints you might have are
>
> useless.
>
>>If you have your Win Me partition visible when running Win 2K this could
>
> be
>
>>the cause of your problems. Personally I never feel it a good idea to
>
> expose
>
>>different operating system partitions to each other preferring instead to
>
> keep
>
>>all system partitions hidden other than the one currently in use.
>>
>>Your current problem seems to results from having reinstalled Win Me over
>>itself, perhaps because you didn't first remove Internet Explorer 6. In
>
> all
>
>>honesty I don't feel that your original problem warranted reinstalling Win
>
> Me
>
>>but I appreciate different users approach their problems from different
>>directions.
>>
>>Given what I know about the history of your problem I would try to
>
> reinstall
>
>>Win Me yet again. If you do choose to reinstall Win Me this can cause
>>problems especially if you had previously upgraded from IE5.5 to IE6 (See
>>below) and possibly if you had installed an early (beta) version of
>
> Windows
>
>>Media Player 9. Any WMP problems can be avoided by renaming
>>c:\windows\system\wmploc.dll to wmploc.old before reinstalling Win Me.
>
> You
>
>>will also need to reinstall some critical patches even though the Windows
>>Update site will not show them as being required due to the original
>>"IsInstalled" flag remaining set in the registry. The Belarc Advisor
>>(http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) would help you here in
>
> identifying
>
>>which patches needed to be reinstalled.
>>
>>If you have installed IE6 ideally this needs to be uninstalled before
>>(re-)installing Win Me. If this is the case you might want to have a look
>
> at
>
>>MS KB 312451 - "How to Remove Internet Explorer 6 by Reinstalling Windows"
>>(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=312451) and also KB 293907 - "How to
>>Uninstall Internet Explorer 6"
>
> (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=293907).
>
>>--
>>Mike Maltby MS-MVP

>>
>>
>>Roxy > wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Thanks for your prompt reply. The problems began when ME would freeze
>>>after running for some 15 minutes. I figured it was some virus and did
>>>scans but no virus were found. I tried restoring the system to a
>
> previous
>
>>>configuration but it always said restoration was unsuccessful. Then I
>>>reinstalled ME over itself to see if it would restore damaged system
>>>files. Now, it just won't go past the background green color desktop.
>>>I have had Boot Magic for several years -- first using Win98 and
>
> Win2000,
>
>>>then I upgraded Win98 to ME. And it had worked like a charm, until this
>>>week. Win2k is working fine. I'm sending these messages from my Win2k
>>>configuration.
>>>
>>>The problem with system restore is that from Win2k I can't upgrade with
>>>the patch and in any case my impression is that it will not help much if
>>>it won't go back to a previous version -- starting from scratch after
>>>installing the patch.
>>>
>>>My smgr.dll is version 4.90.0.2533
>>
>>
>
>

[Mike M]

Roxy,

Visible = Capable of being seen. Which is clearly the case if when running
Win 2K you can see your Win Me partition. Allowing this is a known vector for
creating a screwed system.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



Roxy > wrote:

> Mike:
>
> I don't really understand when you say if the partitions are visible. In
> case it helps, ME is on C: and Win2k is on F. When I open Windows Explorer
> in Win2k, I can see everything and C: files are available if I need to
> open them. Programs is another matter.
>
> I did not remove IE6. The problem is how do I remove IE6 if I can't get ME
> to complete the installation process. I can't work with the registry
> because when I do run regedit, the one that comes up is Win2k; the
> operating system working at the time.
>
> Rick:
>
> I can start in safe mode but ME won't go into the final phase of the
> startup.
>
> If I may be so bold, why would I need to reinstall BootMagic -- on booting
> I'm given the choice between ME and Win2k and if I chose Win2k it works
> fine.