Have had serious issues... so have had to reformat/restore Win ME numerous times on my eMachines PC (dont laugh) ... but sometimes when I turn the PC on I get a "cdminst" error and the boot up stops there... so I have to shut down and restart... sometimes successfully, or sometimes it takes a few tries.

Any suggestions? thank you

I have had to live with the same problem for years. It comes and goes. CDMINST is basically the Windows Me process that checks and sets up Plug and Play hardware. This seems to be a problem on some older VIA Tech chip set system boards. I suspect it is BIOS setting related, but have not been able to determine the exact cause. One solution is to start with a new system board so you don't have the problem. I have bought a new power supply to see if it effects the problem, because removing one of the hardisks seems to effect the problem, but have not got around to using it yet.