You said you had ME.
Did you load 98 over ME, or did you format the drive and then load 98?
If it was the latter, try; Start; Run; and type "SFC", (no quotes). This will run a system file check and determin if you have any corrupted files. (Have your Win98 CD handy). Follow the on screen prompts and see if it improves the situation.
If it was the former, you will probably have to start from scratch.
Let us know how you get on please.