i have a hp desktop, 850mhz, 196meg, 40gig, it's less then 6mths old. it haven't been able to restart my comp for along time. i've contacted hp several times and they never help. msconfig is set to a minimum, and i haven't installed any new software or hardware. everything else works perfect, shutdown, startup..... but i can never simply restart??? thanks

right ckick on your desktop,select new, >>click shortcut,type the following line in the space exactly;- C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE*shell32,SHExitWindowsEx*2 click nextand type restart,click finish,you will have a restart icon on desktop.try it by dbl clicking. NOTE; above commd. *=one space

Three things... 1)What happens when you attempt a restart? Does it hang? If so, when? 2)Have you installed the updates for Windows ME from the update page? 3)If you boot into safe mode, can you restart properly from there? To boot into safe mode: Reboot. After the memory check and *beep* start tapping on the F8 key over and over. Choose #3 safe mode. Once everything is up, try a reboot. Reboot normally. What happens? Does it hang there also, or does it act properly?

Mine does the same thing. I have a Compaq Presario. Whenever I load new software and it tells me to restart, it always hangs.

i didn't give enough info, sorry yes it restarts fine in safe mode. i entered safe mode a couple days ago and scanned over msconfig, on my startup it had every item checked? i had already changed that in normal mode, so i don't know why they were all checked in safe mode. it never hangs or runs inproperly in safe mode. i'll try redpeppers suggestion and let you know!

If you can restart from safe mode properly... then all is not lost. It is most likely a driver or a piece of software that is hanging you up. You can do some troubleshooting on your own from msconfig. Go to start>>run>>msconfig. Choose selective startup. Take the check out of everything underneath. Click apply>>ok>> reboot when prompted. When you get up... attempt a normal reboot. Did it hang? It shouldn't... if it did... you're looking at a problem with a device driver that does not run in safe mode. These include the cd-rom driver, the modem driver, the NIC driver, and some others. If it hangs there, post back and I will try to help you figure it out. If it didn't hang... Go back to msconfig. Under selective startup, put a check in System.ini. Click apply>>ok>>reboot when prompted. When you get back up, attempt a full reboot. Hang? If yes... it is a driver for one of your devices that is hanging you up. From experience, it is most likely the sound or video card driver, but you will have to test some devices by disabling them in the device manager and testing on subsequent reboots. If no... it's not the drivers doing it. Go back to msconfig. Put a check in Win.ini. Click appy>>ok>>reboot when prompted. When you get back up, try a full reboot. Hang? If yes... it shouldn't be... I've only seen one case of win.ini hanging a computer and that was due to a virus being loaded from the load= line in the Windows section of the win.ini file. If it hangs there... Go to start>>run>>win.ini. Copy and paste the file that pops up in notepad here and I will take a look. If no... Go back to msconfig. Put a check in Static VxD's Click apply>>ok>>reboot when prompted. When you get back up, test with a full reboot. Hang? If yes... now we're getting somewhere... there are some known issues with some NIC virtual drivers and antivirus virtual drivers and ME. If it hangs with Static VxD's check, you will want to go back to msconfig and go the the static vxd tab. Uncheck them all and then start testing with the above formula checking things one at a time. Test NDIS.Vxd and anything that has to do with your antivirus software first. Reboot after each checkmark... and test with a full reboot. If no... Go back to msconfig. Put a check in Environemt Variables. Click appy>>ok>>reboot when prompted. Test with a full reboot when you get back up. Hang? If yes... you have loaded a legacy device or piece of software that insisted on putting itself in the autoexec.bat or config.sys file. Since ME migrates these items to the registry and processes them differently... that program/driver is what is hanging you up. Take a look in the environment variables tab. You should have 4 entries there. If you have more... post them here and I will have a look. If no... then it is a program that is causing your problem. Something loaded on this box is not clearing itself out of memory fast enough for you to reboot properly. You will need to do some troubleshooting to find out what it is. Go back to msconfig. Go to the startup tab. Start checking things five at a time, reboot and then a full reboot to test after each set of checkmarks... until you get the hang. A warning here... the startup entries tend to "rearrange" themselves, so you may want to bring along a piece of paper and pencil to write down what you are checking and unchecking to test. If you get the hang after testing with five items, you will know the problem lies in that group. Go back and uncheck them all... then check them one at a time until you find the culprit. There are some known issues with antivirus software, firewalls, and legacy(16bit) software. Test these first to cut down on your troubleshooting time. I want to wish you good luck. Sometimes it is kind of a pain to figure out what is causing your problems, but there are ways to figure it out on your own.