Hey guys...I'm having a problem with a Duron700MHz Gigabyte GA-7ZX based system. When booting up after the computer has been off for a while, it hangs before the WinME screen, but after the POST. This only happens when the machine is cold (literally) so I think it must be a hardware problem (maybe???). I've reinstalled windows, updated the MB drivers, but haven't yet done a BIOS update yet. Do you think this would solve the problem, or is it a hardware issue? I've put together a lot of Athlon-ASUS board systems and never had a problem. The only other difference is the case and power supply. Oh, and an ATI Xpert 99 on this system is another difference. Any ideas?

Just how cold are we talking? I would say that it is more that likely a hardware issue. Is the temp within the manufacturers suggested temp?

Cold as in the computer has been turned off for a while (say 1 hr)at normal room temp. That's got to be a hardware issue, right? Just what exactly...?

I'm also having the same problem with my system. My system has an ABIT BH6 motherboard. My guess is that it is a Windows ME problem and the drivers it is trying to load at startup. Can you get into save mode from a cold boot? If so, run msconfig from within Windows(safe mode) select selective startup and turn off the following; process config.sys file, process autoexec.bat file and load startup group items. Select apply then shut down and try a cold start again. If this works it's more than likely it's a driver problem.

I'm have exactly the same problem. On an athelon board with athelon 1gig processor. It starts like my old porsche, a bitch when its cold but then its ok all day. Mine initially hangs on the first dos screen at the wait.... prompt. I am wondering if you need to leave it on this prompt while the hardware warms up? havn't tried it yet but I will. I would love to fix this problem.

I am having a similar problem (and had it with W98SE). Mine usually only hangs at the first boot of the day. If I reset and boot normally, no problem. I am running WinME on an ASUS P2B/PIII system. Because it's intermittent, I figure it is either a hardware problem or something to do with resource assignment in the PnP setup...almost as if Windows likes some combinations but not others.

Mine does that aswell. I've got a duron 1000 running on an abit kr7a via266a MB. It happens on ME and 2000 but only on cold boots. I get various errors on 1st boot generally involving blues screens (2k) or registry errors (ME). It happens when all I have in is cpu, memory and hard disc.