ME won't load any programs during start up!!!

[th201]

I had some major spyware issues that spybot & adware could not remove, so I was forced to remove them myself. Arter doing so, everytime I start my computer, everything is working until it completely loads and at the end all I see is the blue background of ME. None of my shortcuts are on the screen, there is no start menu or even the bar running across the bottom. The screen is entirely blank!! When I reboot in safe mode it is the same thing, still blank, except for the safe mode written around the screen. I would like to reinstall ME but have no way of uninstalling it. Any advise would be greatly helpful. Thanks.

 

[SkipCox]

First, try a restore point prior to the date you manually removed the malware.

If that gives no solution, do an "over the top" Me install.

You can either use your CD or go to:

C:\Windows\Options\Install\Setup.exe

and do it from the hdd. You won't lose any data.

And, you don't need to uninstall Me...that's just not necessary at this point.

Let us know what happens. Other solutions exist to save data that are more time consuming but one of the solutions above should work for you.

Skip

http://home.comcast.net/~skip9/index.html

http://scc.i8.com

 

[orypecos]

I know if u mess with 'active desktop' u can have a blank screen like that. Try doing a right mouse click and see if the options come up.

 

[westhills]

I am having the same problem (on another computer). I used AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy to get rid of some stuff, but Internet Explorer 6 still kept crashing. So I uninstalled it and was going to reinstall it, but now Windows ME never finished the startup routine. It will do a ScanDisk, load McAfee, but then just stop at the same screen as the original questioner is getting. You can get to anything, so you can't go run your ME setup like some have suggested. Right-clicking does nothing. In fact, ctrl+alt+del doesn't even show any programs running (and you can't look at processes). It truly does NOTHING and safe mode does the same. From my computer, I looked at the c:\ of the computer with the problem, and it does not have a file called setup.exe under C:\Windows\Options\Install\.

I even tried putting the ME installation CD in and booting up, but if it does read from the CD, it doesn't do anything. I assume that the CD I'm using has the Windows setup on it - it came with the laptop and just says System Recovery CD.

Any other ideas? The only thing I can think of is to pop in an XP CD and try to load that (and purchase a license after the fact).

Thanks for your input!

 

[dbMark]

Make sure your mainboard's BIOS is set to look for a CD before the hard drive at boot time. Just in case that's the problem.

 

[westhills]

Finally got the System Restore CD to work. Had to unplug all peripherals first (cost $19.95 from Sony to ask that question). Now we're reinstalling everything. I think I will upgrade to XP soon...