Thanks for all the help and offers of help. Too late on the format. Already formatted and re-installed Windows XP and still same error. Won't run Windows for fear of "damaging" my PC. Bummer I lost some stuff I wanted to keep, but overall maybe a good thing since most I'll probably never look at again anyway (I'm a "pack-rat" that way). But I will get an external HD to keep valuable stuff in the future. Luckily, most family pics were burnt to DVD...wheeew! Anyway, my boss, NICKTHE GRIP>XI<, has hooked me up with Windows 7 - will try tonight and hope to be back on battlefiled this weekend. So, hopefully it's smarter than XP and can work around problem - unless it's hardware. Doesn't seem to be, since everything seems to work. Only when it tries to fire up Windows XP does it crap out. I'll try the RAM thing loader, I hadn't thought of that. But did try other vid card, cleaning out dust, disconnecting un-necessary periphials, etc. Awesome, work blocker is letting me though today Thanks again!!