Stuck on SAFE MODE...

Leonard, this may not be what you want to hear, but you NEED to know this. Your answer is in your first statement; "I have a Dell Dimension 8100, Windows ME". I am A+ certified (I also have other certs) with a degree in Computer Science. In A+ class, (which is where you learn everything about hardware and software if you didn't know) we were told with ME, don't even waste time repairing it. You know it has to be bad because Microsoft doesn't even offer it for sale any more. (If you owned a Mustang for example, and Ford quit making them because they discovered the car explodes for no known reason, would you try to keep yours running? Would you keep using it?) I had a lady in Science class that her ME machine would only start in Safe Mode after having worked fine for months. She wasn't connected to the internet, but just using it for typing her papers and such. So I brought it home, and sure enough it would only start in Safe Mode. I ran the bootlog and discovered everything was loading fine, until it got to loading the fonts. EVERY SINGLE FONT WAS ERRORING OUT. ME will do that, it will suddenly decide it no longer likes some application you've been using for years. Or it no longer will "play nice" with the same hardware that it's always had. Yes, this is a common problem. And once you begin having problems with ME, the problems will be non-stop. You fix one, only to see another develop. As far as your particular problem, if "It also said something about 'new hardware installed' but I'm pretty sure i did not install anything..." tells me it "forgot" it had some piece of hardware, then detected this "new" hardware, but it doesn't like the "new" hardware so it won't start properly. No, this is not an uncommon problem with ME.
The best thing for you to do at this point is "fdisk", and install a new OS. NOT AN UPGRADE VERSION, EITHER. Do a clean install. If you do an upgrade, you will retain the unstable foundation that ME is built on. That's what the whole problem with ME is in the first place. See, there's Windows 9X architecture or Windows NT architecture. ME was created by Microsoft in an attempt to slowly convert to the NT structure. ME has some of both. Microsoft learned the hard way that the two architectures are too different to have a "bridge" between them. Thus, it isn't worth trying to fix.
Your best solution is either revert back to Windows 98se, or move up to NT with either XP Pro or 2000 Professional. (XP Home is okay, but only in some instances. For instance, if you want to have a lot of fun (lol), try networking an XP Home machine with some XP Pro or 2000 machines, or any other non-XP Home machines. XP Home wasn't made for networking in a mixed environment, while XP Pro has no problem with it). Sorry for the length, but I think it's all information you should know.

If you use a dial up account or have a phone line attached to your system for Faxing remove the modem card. Re-attempt to boot to safe mode where you can remove this device from the device manager and run scandisk.

If this fails see:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=273738