Could someone please help!? I have a problem where my PC boots up but I am forced to us the keyboard to enter commands. The mouse can move but the Start button (and the taskbar) will not respond (or only partially respond) when I click on them. Usually after every 6th or 7th boot (and a lot of waiting) it snaps into life again suddenly. The only change I made to my computer was to install and then immediately uninstall Outlook Express 6. Is there any software I can use to diagnose what's causing this? Thanks!

Reformat and reinstall.

Jonna, what os do you have? windows operating system you should probably not reformat right away if you don't have to I hate formatting its a pain easy but still a pain try booting into safe mode and see what happens you need to post what os you have though because for win 98 you use the f8 key same thing for win 95 I belive also you may be having this problem due to a low amount of system resources how much ram do you have in your computer and how well is the performance if you haven't solved your problem yet Jonna post back and I will do my best to help you out

Try reseating the mouse connector. Try another mouse if you can. Definitely use a format install only as a last resort. Before you do that try installing on top of the current system.

Hi guys - thanks for the quick reply! I'll try to give more info: I am using Windows 98 on a Compaq Presario V500 computer (is this info of any use?!) I forgot to mention that I also installed Desktop Architect a few days ago - but the problem only began occurring after the install/uninstall of Outlook Express 6. Nevertheless, I uninstalled Desktop Architect to be on the safe side but that didn't make any difference. I have booted Windows in Safe Mode and the mouse DOES work fine when I do this ... is this a good sign? I have done a bootlog.txt, gone through scandisk (thorough), used the system information app. in Accessories, checked which programs run at startup etc - all to no avail! I have NO idea what is causing this. Aaghhh! All I know is that every command needs to be entered from the keyboard until the PC (perhaps) decides to let me start using the mouse again. Strangely, it allows me to click Desktop icons but of course, when any program opens it is useless. Like I said - the mouse pointer moves, but when I click on 'File' (for example) the titlebar 'dims' and the window freezes until I shut it down using the CTRL + ALT + DEL (+ End task). BTW: What is 'reformatting'? It sounds scary ...!

Brandon, you asked my about RAM etc ... I copied this from my System Information just now ... Microsoft Windows 98 4.10.2222 A Clean install using OEM Preinstall Kit /T:C:\WININST0.400 /SrcDir=C:\.... IE 5 6.0.2600.0000 Uptime: 0:00:46:50 Normal mode On "OEMCOMPUTER" as "Joanna" Compaq Computer Corporation GenuineIntel Intel(r) Celeron(tm) Processor 63MB RAM 79% system resources free Windows-managed swap file on drive C (4731MB free) Available space on drive C: 4731MB of 8046MB (FAT32) PLEASE HELP!!! Thanks!