i have a compaq installed with windows ME it was working fine then all of a sudden when i restarted it it would do everyhting normal but when it got to the screen where its says windows ME it made a couple click noises inside the tower then it automatically went into windows millenium start menu and i can choose to start manually,start in safe mode,logged,then step-by-step confirmation ive tried all but nothing works. if i start in normal it looks like i start in safe mode. then it said something about the drives werent being found or something like that. i havent been online in that computer forever so i dont think i could have caught a virus. please help someone

Hi and welcome to D-A-L


when you start in safe mode is all ok?

Have you got the disc to the machine.

have you tried system restore.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/267951

when i start in safe mode its not ok i have no desktop icons. i dont see the tool bar i just see the background with safe mode written in evey corner. Everytime i restart it will say compaq then this countdown in the left upper corner starts its the memory its counts it from 0-64 then it says ok and it takes me to the windows ME start up screen then it starts making noises and automatically takes me to the system menu but i dont know how to restore it because all it gives me is this:
1.Normal
2.Logged
3.Safe Mode
4.Step-by-step confirmation
ive tried everything the first 3 choices will automatically take me to safe mode im not sure what the 4 one is i ran it couple of times but nothing.

have you got the boot disc and main disc for ME?

no i dont have a disk for it please is there anything i can do im going nuts here

if you've got funny noises that doesn't sound to good.

did you not get any discs with the machine?

do you feel confident in opening the case and checking for loose connections?

ok the computer was not brand new it was given to me but i had for about couple months then all of a sudden bam! the thing wasnt working it does make funny noises when im in the windows startup screen it make like a weird noise then it takes me to the system menu.im pretty confident in opening to check for anything at this point

have a look inside the case for dust build up

you could try removing the hard drive and slaving it in another machine to see if it works OK.

ok i looked inside and there was a lot of dust build up and i dont want to move the drive disk with the better comuter just because the better computer works really great but i need to fix the old one its not really. but i did clean the dust and nothing happen

go here download and create a boot disc for ME

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

and try running it.

for checking the hard drive the only way is to slave it in another machine.