zipp 51. Got your post re my problem being a power supply. Some of my computer's behavior which I did not describe in detail leave me still inclined to suspect more a corrupt program (no idea which one it could be) or a corrupt kernal. But with no real evidence either.

But I'm really writing to ask if you could dig up for me the source of those disks you said in your reply to biker666 were needed for booting XP. Btw, I do have a floppy for booting XP that I downloaded via PCWorld. It consists of 3 files: boot.ini, ntldr and nsdetect.com...but it didn't help me. Could they be what you thinking of?

wumply