I am running a Union Friendly Systems ME computer, with 11 Gb hard drive, 64 Mb RAM, upgraded to 512. The hard drive has recently been partitioned so that half of it has Kubuntu, and the other half still has Windows ME. I am still using the ME, because it has AOL dial-up installed, and there is no cable at this location.

Many of the stability problems seem to have existed before the partition, but got worse. The most common one is that I will type start--U--Enter, with shut down selected, with or without closing all open windows, and the computer will shut down normally but immediately restart. Then I have to watch the screen and change the selection to windows, or the computer will boot Kubuntu. Kubuntu will demand a password before I can select shut down, but even so, Windows will detect an improper shut down next time and start a disc check.

If I try to shut down with AOL still connected, some kind of crash is almost certain.

It's not uncommon for ZoneAlarm to show a red X when starting after a crash, indicating that a restart is required for an active firewall.

Today I got a blue screen error message when shutting down:

File Name: VWIN 32(05) + 000012D0
Error: 0E : 0028 : C02A44A8

After pressing "enter" to return to windows, the wallpaper reappeared briefly, after which the screen went blank and the lights in the function control area of the monitor all started to blink in unison. The only thing I could do was type control-alt-delete, which restarted the computer.

The computer seems like it tends to freeze when RAM is filling up. Also sometimes when starting more than one program at once. Sometimes close program helps, but not always.

I downloaded the windows traditional Chinese character entry package from windows update, but it seems not too useful, because it is not active in notepad, open office, or secure shell. The documentation is very scanty.

We did a disc defragmentation before partitioning it, but now the defragmenter will not work.

Is it likely that I have some corrupted files that could be fixed, corrupted files that could not be fixed, or is it how windows is designed to act?

rainbow_warrior

Get rid of Zone Alarm. It has to be the worst firewall/protection program out there. It WILL make connections and your PC mess up. Ditch that useless software!

Not sure with ME, but if it keeps rebooting after shutting down the computer, it's usually a driver issue or possibly a "wake on" LAN or USB setting in the BIOS. Here's a few sites to do a little more research on the error code:
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I've used ZA for a few years with no problems. I like it better than Trend-Micro that I have on another machine, but that's just me
Mark

Actually, sometimes I get a message saying, ``The last few times your computer went on stand-by, it stopped responding. Do you want to prevent it from going on stand-by?'' I always check ``no.'' I am not sure what events the message is referring to.