Laura1, I have very bad eye sight even with glasses and contacts, so I know how to make fonts larger! First off, if your screen isn't filling the entire screen, look at the upper right corner where you see a minus, double squares, and an X. Click the double squares and it will restore the screen to full size. Then look on the tool bar for "page" and then select "font" and then click "largest". My DH also put a "zoom" on our bottom tool bar so I can just click on it to make the words even bigger. These things all make reading Garden Web so much easier! Linda Leaf

Be aware that if this turns out to be something on the motherboard and you elect to replace the motherboard it will also cost you an operating system because the current XP is tied to that specific motherboard. As Someone suggested that an overheating capacitor on the MoBo could be the problem you might study the capacitors etc with a magnifying glass looking for discolouration or slight bulging, you never know.

Most laptop have this set of Function keys (Fn), depending on your brand, it could be Fn + any of the F1-12 keys.

win 98 getting kind of old!!! From you description: keyboard lights blink and the mouse light comes on, hear the fan whirring and soft beeps coming from the monitor and the tower. To me that sounds like it's posting correctly, check you cable monitor connections first. Then try another monitor.