Windows ME would only open in low res 16 colour mode and I've also lost use of the
mouse (although it reappears in safe mode).

Removing display drivers and letting windows find them again did repair the display issues but the same trick doesn't solve the mouse probs.

The error message given in device manager is 'cannot load vmouse.vxd that loads driver
for this device (code 8)'

Another message I get on starting windows are 'QTtask has caused an error in Kernal32.DLL'and I also get an error message relating to 'quicktime.QTS'.

I've also had windows log in boxes appear
that I've not seen before and items such as a saved password for internet log on
disappear.

Computer was used the day before (MP3 and internet use) without problems and I hadn't
installed anything new.

I've tried system restore which didn't work at all and 'second chance' software
that came with the computer which is supposed to restore c: drive to earlier date.

Virus checker also run and didn't find anything but possible not fully up to date.

I've also tried using Windows ME start up disk to restore things but can't get it to boot from the disk and can't access floppy disks in windows (no idea if this is a new problem as I never use the drive)

Any ideas?

Thanks

"Windows Cannot Load the File [vmouse.vxd]" Mouse Error Message Displayed by Device Manager

Sounds like something bad has happened to QuickTime on your system; the official QuickTime player does not run well on my system either (acts like a virus infection or something), I switched to the 9x version of QuickTime Alternative and it works great.

You might try unchecking QTTask (and anything else to do with QuickTime) on the startup tab of the system configuration utility (msconfig) and see if it helps.

You should be sure to run updated antivirus software, out of date antivirus software is as bad or worse than none at all.

Online malware scanners

Thanks that helped a lot.