Windows ME Freezing on start up

Can anyone please help before I go crazy?? I have a long standing problem with the pc not booting up properly. It starts up and then stops before the right hand tray displays all the icons. (Does this make sense). Its totally random - can go for a couple of days no prob and then freeze every other time I start up.

I was told by Mesh engineers to open in safe mode and tick off the running progs - BUT 1. as the prob is random it wouldnt prove or disprove if a program was to blame and 2. The machine totally freezes when I try to do this.

I have (stupidly) downloaded some "critical updates" from MS and found that I have further probs in other areas and have been unable to use system restore - unsuccessful.

Can anyone please help.

Also, can anyone tell me how to uninstall a new download called
NVidia Manager or some such which seems to have attributed 2 monitors to me and my picture is all to one side of the screen.

 

It appears that you may be running DirectX v9.0 on an older machine. If memory serves me correctly ME had v7.0 or 7.1, this could be one source of the problem.

Its also possible that there is intermittent unstable video with the current drivers. There's a whole host of things that can cause this, overclocking, wrong drivers. etc.

You say you've installed Nvidia Manager and believe me from experience I know this also is a problem, especially if one is not aware of complications involved for proper setup.

Possible solution to all of these, is a reinstall of Win ME and then Establish Restore Points BEFORE each and every download of a Patch or Program update.

Hope this helps