I downloaded LimeWire a month ago and began downloading mp3 files. In the last month my computer has had a series of problems that have gotten increasingly worse, to the point where I can't even boot it. My computer is somewhat old, and I'm trying to tell if it is a virus, software problem, (caused by Limewire) or a hardware problem. Here's what happened: 1. Internet Explorer started crashing. 2. Limewire started to crash my computer when I started it. 3. Started getting BSOD whenever I ran more than one application at a time. 4. BSOD practially all the time - kernel32.dll errors, vsx errors 5. Tried to download anti-virus software but it crashed every time. Computer also crashed when copying files. 5. My IT friend decided it was the OS (Win 98) and started to reinstall it but computer crashed in the middle of installation and then would not boot. 6. Thought maybe the hard drive was bad and got a different hard drive (used but functional). Connected it as the master - tried to install W98 - but it doesn't start up all the way (desktop w/ no icons, no start menu) 7. After much agony and experimentation determined that one of my RAM chips was bad and removed it. Crashing when copying or downloading files stopped, but my directories are all messed up because it had crashed when reinstalling W98. 8. Got it to work briefly with my old drive as the master and the new one as the slave, but suddenly today it won't even boot and the startup disk does not recognize the drive. Eek! Could a virus from Limewire actually cause hardware problems and destroy my RAM? (and/or my hard drive? Could it cause serious problems with my OS? Or is it a hardware problem and not related to Limewire? I'm reluctant to reformat my original hd because I got the computer from a friend, and it has a lot of software that I can't replace. Of course at this point, I don't have many other options. Any comments or help would be MOST welcome! Thanks, Julie

First try redetecting the hard drive in the bios. If this keeps happening it could be a bad cmos battery, try a new one.

Holy schmollie!!!! In your shoes, would start with the basics to see if things can work again. Just have the original hard drive (the one you want to keep) on the PC, and enter the BIOS to see if it is recognized. If it is recognized, use a boot disk to get to an A:\> prompt and key in: Sys C: Click: Enter If successful, a ‘System Transferred’ message appears. Reboot computer. My gut feeling is that so many things were done already that you may have an irreversible problem. Reinstalling the OS is sometimes a quick fix, but there are other times when it is more a problem than a solution.

Also check the boot sequence in the BIOS.

Thanks for the replies! My problem is that I can't get into BIOS - it prompts me for a password. (The previous owner must have set it up like that.) The motherboard manual is very cryptic about how I clear it - something about clearing CMOS settings, but it doesn't tell me how. I tried the SYS command on DOS but it doesn't work b/c the computer doesn't recognize the hdd. "invalid drive" The Win98 startup disk tells me that drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition, even though I know it does (or should, or used to). When I try to boot, it says: Master drive detected: none Slave drive detected: none even though I have both a master and a slave installed. Interestingly, in about 20 tries, it booted twice! It detected both hard disks and worked fine, but upon restart, it was gone... then it worked again a little while (and 10 unsuccessful reboots) later. I was holding down CTRL to start in safe mode on all attempts. Any ideas?

julie, What kind of motherboard is on the PC? Be as specific as possible. Maybe there is some info somewhere about clearing the CMOS with jumpers. Another option is to open the PC case and look for a round battery (about 2cm in diameter). It looks like a flat silver coin, or an oversized watch battery. Hopefully your PC is not so old that it has some other type of battery. If you find the battery, remove it for a period of time (a couple of hours), overnight might even be better. Make sure the PC if off when you do this, and that you are properly grounded. Removing the battery should clear up all the BIOS settings. Also, try using the bootdisk once again, and entering FDISK at the A:\> prompt. Then select: Display partition information. See anything there? Is the partition set as active in Status? (The hard disk is not startable unless a partition is set as active.) In: Type, is it identified as PRI DOS? In: System, is it identified as FAT 32? Let us know what develops.

PS Warlock's suggestion to try a new battery is also an option you may want to pursue. CMOS batteries are not expensive.