no alligators so far. have not been on most of the day, first day of class.

still have the google toolbar, that disappeared about the time the problem started.

am clicking around on yahoo news, which crashed me before, no problem.

clearly you were right and the zero percentage didn't cause the problem.

so who knows. the last couple of changes dorry had me to make may have needed a good shutdown and cold boot to take effect and work.

in 98 a bad shutdown gave me the fixing it screen. in XP it doesn't seem to care if it is shut down properly or not?

also, when i turn on this computer it doesn't beep. i have volume turned off, but shouldn't it beep anyway? the 98 monitor thunked and then the computer beeped, so i could follow its progress. now no beep, no thunk.

in other news, have discovered that if a neighbor points at the new monitor screen with a long fingernail and scratches it, using the keyboard brush to brush cathair off of the monitor eliminates the scratches. and that i should put the screen cover back on before i allow anyone else to use my computer.

so looks like dorry fixed it, or scared it away. i surely was glad to have you guys back, i really panicked!