Cuz I sure don't! It is driving me crazzzzyy. I have an HP Pavillion P3 running WinMe with 512mb ram. A few weeks ago my comuter gave me the blue screen of death with a host of windows errors with what seemed to be generally VM (virtual memory)errors. So I started the computer in safe mode, removed everything from the startup and rebooted and it seemed to work as windows loaded but with jerky, slow cursor movements and I realized that something was still wrong. So I left it for a day and came back and tried booting again and everything seemed to be fine. It held up for a couple days but it happened again. Now when I start it up. Windows loads fine, but when the desktop comes up, the computer is jerky and unusable. The cursor jerks around slowy on the destop if I move it, and everything just seems to be in ultra slowwwww motion. (if I eventually do get the cursor over a desktop folder, it may take a full minute for it to open). I have 2x128mb ram and one 256 stick, so I swapped them out thinking it may be that, no luck. Then I changed the video card to a brand new one, still no luck. It seems to work with no jerky slow action in safe mode. So I have no clue what it may be!! I assumed it was a hardware problem and I have no clue what to do. The only thing I could point out is that there was a fair bit of dust on the fan intake which may have been impeding air flow, but other than that the problem seemed to come out of the blue. PLEAAAASSSEEE Help. I am lost. Thank you everyone. Allison

Could be an overheating problem...is your CPU cooling fan working? Heatsink clogged with dust?

Allison, I sounds like you may have RAM issues. If there was dust and grime on the fan, then it is almost certain that the RAM and other components will have a caking of dust too. I have just spring cleaned my PC for RAM errors. And sure enough there was a good film of dust on the RAM sticks. Give em a good brushing with a paint brush, but make sure you "ground" yourself first before removing the RAM. Download and run MEMTEST86 too to check the RAM for errors. However, there are other things that can cause problems too. Give the PC a good DEFRAG. If DEFRAG comes up with RUN SCANDISK because it saw errors then you have the odd corrupted files. Do a DISK CLEANUP too. 95, 98, and ME all have issues with interruptions from other programs and appear to cause the mouse and video to become "jerky". 2000 and XP are better at combatting this issue. Do a "spring Clean" and see if things improve...:o) Safe Computing...:o)

Considering everything runs OK under safe mode, this would lead me to belive that this is caused by either a driver conflict issue, or a startup program. To determine if it is a startup process, start up the computer in safe mode, and once Windows finsishes booting, type in msconfig.exe in your run box, and press enter. Now go over to the tab labled "Startup", and uncheck all the items. After you have done this, go back to the "General" tab, and select the radio button labled "diagnostic startup". Now press OK, and restart your computer normally. If your computer starts fine, and it has no jerky motion or is not otherwise bogged down, it is a startup program causing the conflict. If everything is OK, type in msconfig.exe in your run box, and go over to the Startup tab once again. Enable only 1 item, press OK, and restart your computer normally. If everything runs normally, it is not that program that is affecting Windows stability. After each restart enable one more startup item using the procedure I stated above. Write down each process you enable with each restart for your reference. When you enable the item causing the conflict, it will make your machine run like it is causing you to post this question. Once you discover the item causing the conflict, disable it, and restart your system normally. If everything appears to be running fine, open up MSConfig once again, and change the radio button on the "general" tab to "Normal Startup". Next, to remove the offending item from your startup sequence perminantly, open up your registry with Regedit by typing regedit.exe in your run box, and browse to the string [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\] This contains the system wide startup list. This string affects all users of the system. Make sure to backup the registy before modification. To do this, click on the run key, and select File --> Export. Save the key to be named BACKUP.REG. After you have archived this registry string, find the offending registry entry to the program that is causing your machine conflicts, and press delete after higlighting the key that is in the right panel of regedit. If it is not under this registy string, it would be under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\]. This string contains the startup items for your individual user account. Use the procedure stated above to resolve it. Always renember to bnckup your registry before making any modifications. If it is not a startup program causing your conflicts, it is more than likely a driver issue. To resolve this, update to the latest driver release by your hardware manufacturers. You can find them at the Hewlitt-Packard site under support, or by going to each individual component manufacturer's website under the support section. If these solutions do not work, please list the exact wording of the BSOD when it appears. This way, we will be able to tell what is wrong with your installation of Windows. The worst case scenario is that you will have to reinstall Windows, and all applications. I would make appropriate backups now just in case this is nessesary. There is only one stupid question, the question that is not asked.

Pcfixinguy, I had run a defrag a few weeks before the problem occured and it did indeed stop someway through and asked me to run scandisk as it found disk errors just as you had said, however upon running scandisk, it showed no errors. I got a can of air and cleaned out my machine but no help yet. The mouse is not just a bit jerky though, I mean, the whole computer is as if it is slugging along, I mean, a major problem, an unusable computer, not just an inconvenience. I am finding it hard to get info over the net (I am using another computer to type this) because the symptoms are hard for me to explain, other than me trying to convey the fact that it is having a problem, which appears unrelated to windows. I don't see though why it works in safe mode, but not in normal mode. And why it worked for a few days and then went belly up again? Any more ideas? Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate it.

k_semler, i tried that. I got rid of all startup programs, and it still happened. Thanks.

Scanned for ad and spy ware recently? It SOUNDS hardware-ish but you never know. I had a Win ME machine with a drive that was "giving up the ghost" and it acted very much like you describe. Jimi_l