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Ouch. My father in law seems to be having a similar problem on his 98 pc. Before reformatting and losing all data, 2 things. Disconnect any unnecessary hardware (PCI cards, modem etc) and then see if it works better. If so, add components one at a time. You may be able to pin it down on a malfunctioning part. If this doesn't work, then I'd try getting a new hard drive and rebuilding the system on that. If you can rebuild with no problems, then you may be able to add your old hard drive as a slave drive and back up all info before reformatting. This way you'll get more storage as well, or even be able to start up form either drive in case of a future problem. There is probably and easier way then the above two options, but that's what I'd do. Maybe someone else has input. Good luck, Jeremy Swan > Hey, speaking of irreperable damage, I have a question, and I'll bet at > least one of you computer-savvy folks out there knows the answer. > > Our PC (running on Windows 98) has recently been exhibiting some weird > behavior. It seems to have reset itself back to former versions of programs > like our Anti-virus software, and will not uninstall or reinstall the > correct versions, because it says it can't find them. A few other things > have seemed to change spontaneously, like our desktop icons are in different > spots, our CD drives are inaccessible, and we can't get on the internet. As > you can imagine, this is not any fun at all. > > We thought it was a worm or virus and have been on the phone repeatedly with > Symantec and MSN trying to figure it out. After we tried all sorts of > recommended fixes (defragmentation, virus scans in DOS mode, etc.), and not > finding anything, the support tech from Symantec is now saying we need to > take it to a repair place and have the hard drive reformatted. He said > computers usually need to have this done every 4-5 years (ours is just > turning four this September). We have a computer book that tells us you > should never have to have this done, and that techs only tell people to do > it because they are out of real answers. > > We are pretty happy to try anything that will work at this point, but if we > can avoid the hassle of rebooting everything and the expense of a repair > shop, I'd like to. Any thoughts? > > Thanks in advance! > Rachel > > >> From: lindsey dearnley <[log in to unmask]> >> Reply-To: SciArt-L Discussion List-for Natural Science Illustration- >> <[log in to unmask]> >> To: [log in to unmask] >> Subject: Re: re Macs >> Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 19:28:48 +0100 >> >> Looks like Im keeping the mac then! Im not so sure >> about networking them both together, Im so computer >> illiterate I would probably do irreparable damage or >> something. It might be an option in the future >> though. >> Ill probably have to hook my mac up to the net, But >> I dont suppose if anyone on here can give me tips on >> that, as I dont know if I can have two computers in >> the same household using the same dial-up number. Im >> in the UK on BT openworld, so If anyone actually can >> answer that question, it would save me some time >> hunting the BT website ;) >> >