[GT40FIED]

First of all, I'd like to thank Aaron and all of the other computer junkies who roam this forum. I've learned so many tips and tricks it's insane.

Anyhow...my brother's computer is totally fucked. When it boots it will load the wallpaper and nothing else. The toolbar at the bottom of the screen will be there for half a second then disappear. No icons, it won't recognize anything in the drives...nothing. Even the task manager shows absolutely no programs or tasks running. But the wallpaper's there (a non-windows wallpaper) so I know it's recognizing at least that file. It's a Hewlett-Packard (I know, I know...they suck) running Windows ME. I attempted to run it in safe mode to at least access the command prompt, but it did the same thing even in safe mode. If I can't get access to the command prompt or anything else I can't even reformat the damn thing. Any ideas how to get around this unusual flaw? I'm completely baffled. I've never seen a computer problem that didn't have at least one weakness.