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#1
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ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen
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 |
#2
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ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen-sys reg
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 |
#3
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ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen-sys reg
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 |
#4
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ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen-sys reg
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 |
#5
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ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen-sys reg
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 |
#6
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ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen-sys reg
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 |
#7
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ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen-sys reg
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 |
#8
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ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen-sys reg
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 |
#9
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ME's startup doesn't go further than the green screen-sys reg
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 |
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