Help! Windows ME freezes periodically at startup (dreaded hourglass on desktop). I have done the standard step-by-step boot-up and had it freeze as well. When it works I have all my start-up programs in the tray (not from Startup Folder) such as video software, speaker (volume), Norton Anti-virus, Zone Alarm. The problem is...it doesn't happen all the time. I restart and sometimes I get the same problem and sometimes it is fine. I've run MSconfig and tried selective start. It stops at VSData95.vxd..tells me there is a problem and makes me start the machine over. Is VSdata95.vxd the problem? I know this is a long posting but I'm desperate! Thanks!!

The file VSdata95.vxd is from your zone alarm firewall. Do some reading up on this, to me it sounds like uninstalling the Zone alarm software completely will resolve the problem. http://www.btinternet.com/~splyons/problems.html http://www.zonelabs.com/services/support_za_zap.htm Have you tried System Restore back to an earlier point before problems started? Hope this helps!!

Ref: my ME Start-up Problems I have experienced these problems for a long time...even prior to my first install of Zone Alarm. Could it be a conflict in software loading at the start-up? Is there anyway I can do a step-by-step load? The step-by-step confirm that is standard doesn't show this activity. Thanks again!

Yes, it is kinda tedious, but what you can do is start your system and go to start>run>TYPE IN:msconfig and then select start up tab. What I do is write down everything that has a check by it, then UNcheck everything on the list! Click ok, and restart or reboot your system, then go to start>run> msconfig and start up tab again and just check the first thing on your list you wrote down and click ok, and reboot. The theory here is if you do have a conflict upon start up with something, doing this one at a time and rebooting till you get an error, narrows it down to what program is causing the error! Check out this article also: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q273738 it might help you a tad and get you familiar with what goes on when you fire up your system. Let us know what happens and if you got it fixed, ect! Hope this helps!! ============================================= " Hardware: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked

Zone Alarm Web site yields 4 pages of uninstall instructions, but they don't get all the vsdata95.vxd. The file you can see must be removed in Safe Mode. Then there are 4 more scattered thru the Registry (98 SE ver). I used Regedit Find to locate and delete. Don't forget to Export your Registry before doing this. So far so good for me.

click on start-->run-->type in "msconfig"-->Ok Click on selective startup-->now clcik on the start up tab on the top right hand side.in the white box among the listings leave the checks only on the following and uncheck the rest 1)systemtray 2)taskmonitor 3)scanregistry 4)pchealth 5)loadpowerprofiles (2 sessions) click on apply---> click on Ok click on yes to restart your computer the system will come up again without anyof the errors you had before!!! good luck!!