Oh owbist, Thank you soooo very much for responding so quickly! This computer is all original....exactly as it came from Amazon about 6 years ago. I have done some Windows Updates. In fact, a few days before I started having the problems I had done an update. Not for optional but for all the security things. I didn't think my problems had anything to do with the update as the problems didn't start until a few days later. Yes, I checked the fan, heat sink, other fan....all were running as they always have. I shut everything down, got my handy-dandy wrist/shock thing and blew everything out then using a paint brush with soft bristles I removed dust that didn't come out with the blowing. Everything came back on fine, no loud noises, fan reacted as it always has. I have never saved or put anything in D Recovery as I know that it contains the information I need in case my computer should go down and I need to start all over with the factory defaults. I have no idea why all of a sudden I'm told D is short of memory as I've never even bothered with the D. I know my limitations and messing with something I know nothing about is not going to happen in my lifetime as far as computers go. :) The last few times with Blue Screen, the computer screen goes dark, looks as if computer shuts down but instead a Chkdsk program starts. I allow that to run. When it's done, the computer will shut down and start back up with the message in the right corner telling me I am short of D memory. After my first post here, I looked again at the Restore. The date was for April 17, 2013. I believe that was a day my AVG updated. I ran the Restore and got my D back. Here are the numbers I just got from 'Computer': C: Used- 52639744,000 Bytes 49.0 GB Free- 260,710,490,112 Bytes 242 GB Capacity: 313,350,234,112 Bytes __________________ D: Shows a bar with almost all red except a hair-width worth. Space Free: 105 MB Used: 52639744.000 Bytes 49.0 GB

It seems strange that the BSOD only happens at startup and shutdown, it suggests corrupt files to me. Assuming you have the W98SE CD you could run the System File Checker (sfc) to check for corrupt or missing files. Do not put the CD in the drawer unless asked. Click Start, click Run and type sfc and hit OK. Your computer will test Windows and may well ask you for guidance, this will only be in cases where the installed driver is newer than the original so you would not allow the computer to change that back. If it finds corrupt files it may/will ask for your CD. Christopher wrote I have done all the clean up and virus checks What does that mean? Can you list the task for us please? What anti virus, firewall and other safety programs are you running? I see you have a built in Verge S# video card, the latest driver available from ECS is dated 2004/07/03, you probably have those so updating may not be needed. Try clicking Start/Control panel/System/Device manager and look down the list for yellow marks, either exclamtion or question marks. Double click on anything to bring up Properties and have a looksee. Any irregularities?

dual boot means that you have more than one operating system installed and can choose which to boot to. I had xp and linux for a while, but finally gave up on linux. Dell doesn't supply the windows cd but you are supposed to make one (called the dell os restore cd) using a utility that comes on the computer. It must be easy to overlook that instruction in the material that comes with the computer because several people have posted with that problem. I doubt that you can use the utility to make the cd if you can't boot up, so if it comes to that you may have to contact dell support. Someone may know if it will work to borrow a windows cd and use the file check.

thanks for the suggestions. I have 1 GB RAM, 1.66 Mghz whatever it is... I spent the afternoon searching through microsoft stop errors and found hundreds of different suggestions, and tried many. I still had problems. A computer programmer suggested to me that it could be the fan, since in his experience, the blue screen is generally a "cry for help" from the computer, that it's overheating. I do spend hours with it on my lap doing my work, rather than a table. This could be why?