Frank,
There is an update for Windows ME that might help.
Dave, sounds like your Systems Resources are overworked. You might check in that little tray on the bottom right (probably) of your screen and see what all is running. Also a lot of programs don't fully close all files when you exit them and if your computer has been on for a long time, and you have opened and closed a lot of stuff, these resources can be so tied up that nothing works.
Right-click My Computer, then Properties, then Performance. Under System Resources it will show the percentage that is free. If it gets below 30% or so, you need to close some programs, or reboot, or close some of the stuff running in the background. Control-alt-delete will show you everything that is running.
Maybe this will help.
DonM