I was having the same problem with Win98, and to cure it I disabled scanreg. just as Heavy Equipment is suggesting. I ran the system trouble free for years. To keep the registry clean I used RegClean from MS and regcleaner.
>At the same time, I recommend a clean install at least three times a year
i dunno...3x per year is a bit excessive.
when i was still running win98 i didn't have to reinstall much. i think it was only once in ~3 years. and the only reason why i had to do that was because my system got hosed when i upgraded my aol v3 to version 4.
Before you buy more ram(unless you want to increase it anyway ) download and check your existing ram with Memtest .I use this on Linux systems but it works on any PC regardless of what OS you run.
lynch
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Seldom right,but never in doubt...