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Computer: Compaq Presario circa 2001
Operating system: Windows ME
How Problem Began: I was waiting for a .wav to process in Cakewalk Home Studio 2 when I decided to stop the whole thing by just pressing the power button (big mistake!). The computer now comes up in either Safe, Diagnostic or Selective mode, but if I set it to Normal mode it reverts to Selective on restart. When it comes back on in Selective mode it only displays pictures in 16-bit color (extremely grainy, semi-large fonts). Initially it would only display the mouse in Diagnostic mode but finally the mouse shows after some of the steps below.
Things I've Done: Scan Disk, Defrag successful. Tried using the Presario Recovery CD-ROM but because I added a second hard drive and made the new one the main one over a year ago this Presario disc doesn't want anything to do with it. System Restore was off due to Norton Antivirus. Microsoft said they don't support ME anymore, call Compaq for $35.
I got a Windows ME boot disk from bootdisk.com and managed to do delete c:\windows\386win.swp (big swap file) at the behest of a IT buddy. I also created a new startup.ini file by copying the old one and modifying a frigged up area of that file per advice I got on a forum. This last move got the mouse to work in Selective mode, but it still ignores my directions to go to Normal mode overall.
I've reset all the Desktop/appearance settings to no avail. It looks like everything is there and working, it's just in 16-bit color with big fonts and stays in Select mode no matter what! Close to being fixed but...what?
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