Thanks so much my good friends!

Conan: I went to www.memtest.org but didnt' find where to make that test, but it's ok since I believe now my best bet is to format the hard drive to get rid of all problems (or so I hope). Being the tech challenged person I am, I'll have to take a big chunk from my savings to have a techi do it (I called some and after describing my problem their estimate was 2 or 3 hours at about $175 per hour!!!).

Piaqt: You're right about using a cd/dvd burner instead of the zip disks, which I intend to buy after I finish my project of bakcup/format hd/change OS. Meantime, I already have bought quite a few of them so for now they'll have to do.

Phishhead, ragnarok and cash_site: I can imagine that the registry gets terribly clogged up after a while, but every 6 months??? I tremble only to think of the pain of having to backup, restore, and perhaps having to fix glitches in the process, etc.!!! ;o) So far I haven't experienced backing up my data even once since I bought the comp. (6 yrs) though, of course, I intended to do it each time I read about it! However, the techis I called when I had problems did it. Also, I have VERY little music, photos, movies, graphics, etc. let alone large ones, so I guess it's ok in my case?

cash_site: I intend to do exactly as you say and at the same time change my OS too...if I ever find a competent and honest techi who dosn't charge a fortune!:
It does sound like some misconfiguration due to many programs being installed/uninstalled etc.. registry must be a mess... a backup of data then format would be recommended...
Thanks again everyone! Adela