Windows me starts normally up to the logon and even plays the windows start-up sound, but stops before the taskbar and desktop come up. It won't even let me restart in safe mode. I've tried booting from a floppy, but when I do this the keyboard is locked out. Does anyone know if this is a virus and if there's a way to get rid of it without reformatting?

Thanks for the help.

Yikes!

try making a new EBD at BootDisk. Your old one is probably infected.

boot to BIOS and make sure that A: is the first boot device.

get DOS based Virus routines here like "checkmate" and (VDS) Virus Detection System.

I HAVE NOT tried these so the risk is on you but it's a start.

Do a google scan on "dos antivirus" (include the quotes)

After you get your system back get these:

HiJack This
SpyBot
AdAware

pay close attention to what these routines want to delete since they involve cookies, data miners and registry settings and can wack your system.

I'll give those a try & hope for the best.

Thanks for the advice.