[Frankly1]

Hi, I'm new at this and need your help. I have an older (year 2000) gateway desktop with athlon 951mhz processor using MS ME op sys. When I turn on the computer after being off for, say, half hour or more it freezes at the "ME" logo screen. On the 2nd and subsequent attempts it continues to freeze at various places, sometimes going into safe mode then freezes--sometimes at scandisk,etc. If I reboot during a session on the computer there is no problem at all. I've tried rebooting over and over while using the computer and there is not a problem--it is only when it has been off for a while. All personal options, i.e., date/time, control panel preferences, etc. do not change. It just won't boot up correctly after it has been off for a while unless I turn it off and on a number (usually 6-7) times. It is stock except for one additional 256K of ram. Any ideas?