I also posted this on another board. One person over there suggested disconnecting the USB modem that I was running (I hadn't initially thought to mention it, but I had a USB modem installed until an hour or so ago and used to have a USB keyboard installed; when the keyboard was installed, half the times I fired the system up Windows wouldn't recognize the keyboard or the modem), as some early AMD motherboards apparently have had problems with the USB ports and such. I installed a PCI modem an hour or so ago and disconnected the USB modem, and so far things actually seem happier...only time will tell, though. I'll try the RAM thing next...this system used to be my dad's; his "solution" was to throw as much RAM as he could at it...he only stopped at 512 'cause he was told that Windows (excluding XP) couldn't recognize any more than that.

I do have a couple games (nothing super-fancy; stuff like SimCity and MS Flight Sim), and also, my scanner software won't work with XP (don't know with 2000), and there aren't any driver upgrades for my scanner. So, sticking with Win98 is probably my best bet...the dual-boot idea could work. I may wind up getting a new motherboard and processor anyways, just to start out fresh. I haven't decided yet, and will wait for my next paycheck in any case.

Any more thoughts would be appreciated...thanks in advance! And time will tell on the modem thing, eh?