Hello all,
I have a Dell L800r desktop computer with 128K Ram, a 20 Gig HD, and
a CD-RW running Windows ME operating system. I also have MS Office
Pro, Norton Antivirus, and Zonealarm on the system. Lately, I've
had some strange things happen.
First, I started having problems with shutting down the computer.
It would seem to "hang" during the shutdown cycle so that the system
did not shutdown. The power switch on the computer was disabled
when this happened so I turned off the power to the computer and
then, after a minute or so, restored the power. The system rebooted
normally and then I was able to shut it down normally. This
happened in both the "hibernate" and in the "shutdown" mode. This
doesn't happen all the time but it still occurs occasionally for no
apparent reason that I can find. By that, I mean that there seems
to be no special combination of software that has been running that
seems to be unique to the problem.
Next, MS Photo Editor stopped being able to scan from my scanner.
When I tried to scan with it, it gave the error that the TWAIN file
was old and requested a reinstall of MS Photo Editor. I dug out the
disks and twice reinstalled it in response to this error message.
It didn't help. I still can't scan with it and it still gives the
same error when I attempt to scan with it.
Another problem that started to happen is that the Windows Hearts
game started to lock up the system which then required a restart to
get the system operating again. When I first got this system in
November 2000 this problem did not happen. It has been occurring
more and more frequently of late.
The above problems, especially the shut down problem, scared me so I
used the restore function of Win ME to try to recover. The recovery
from an earlier date completed normally but, again, strange things
happened. About half of the programs listed in my Start Menu are
now in upper-case letters where they weren't before the restore.
There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for it. The programs
listed in upper case aren't the ones that I've necessarily used most
or anything like that.
The biggest problem, however, that seems to have come from using the
Restore program is that my free HD space changed from having 13.1
Gig of free HD space before the Restore to having 12.6 Gig of free
space afterward. That's 500 meg of space that has been used. What
is even worse is that I can't find the files that apparently
consumed the 500 megs of additional space.
One question I have is how can I find the files that consumed 500
megs of HD space after I did the restore? Another question is, is
there somewhere that has a good, in depth examination of Windows ME
so I can study it and be able to answer my own questions? The help
files that came with Win ME aren't sufficiently detailed to be used
as a guide for troubleshooting it.
One more question. I am considering restoring Win ME from the
original installation disk. Can this be done without having to
reinstall all the other programs that I've installed since the
original installation of ME? Is reinstallation of Win ME a viable
solution to the other problems I've been having?
Sorry about the length of this message. I appreciate greatly any
help anyone can provide.
Loy Pressley
"Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
programs with his honest opinions in this weekly column.
http://freepctech.com/rode
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