Hi, Where do I start. Running windows ME upgrade from 98, P3/1G. A couple of months ago had a total crash, formatted and clean reboot. Not long after started getting auto restarts, freezes on internet or not, lost programs. Then computer would crash, trying to reboot would either go to safe mode or give me error message overclocked (have no idea how to do that) or restart - start - restart etc etc. Computer seems to have a mind of its own (I robot, scary stuff). Have spybot, Nortons system works, e-mail is virus tested by outside source then Nortons tested. Always comes up with no viruses. Heeeeeeeeellllllllllllpppppppppp.
PS: Im 50 years old and my heart cant take much more of this, ha ha.

Back again, forgot to mention most times I start up and computer freezes if I try to do anything i get the message (waiting for close dialoge) can anyone help with that. Also after being on the net I find this (see attachment) on the desktop. Cant upload says invalid. Its looks a little a program folder with a ~ underneath. I delete, next tine I on net it comes back.

Can you take a screenshot of the folder and post here?

Have you run a thorough scandisk to check for errors?

Yes, scan disk, defrag, only thing I havent tried is a shotgun

If you right-click on the icon on the desktop and select Scan For Viruses, does it come up with no viruses found?

If it does, right-click on it again and select Properties. What's the full path that it's pointing to, e.g. "C:\Windows\System\DownloadedSuspiciousStuff.e xe" ?

Yes it does(no viruses found.) I delete all spybot finds. Last night I tried to scan disc again and it took 4 and a half hours, then when I tried to defrag it said it couldnt because there were errors on disc.

Sorry didnt keep readind (C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\Norton System). But stranger still about 3 weeks ago I lost all of my favourite folders, they just turned up in my c disc folder called Dir00000 and Dir oooo1. What the hell is going on

Aha I think its Norton, just found this on the Symantec site about Dir0000 and systems hanging. http://securityresponse.symantec.com....dir00000.html

Some Symantec customers using Norton AntiVirus versions 4.0x, 5.0x, Norton AntiVirus CE 7.0x, or Norton AntiVirus NLM 4.04 have reported apparent system hangs and loss of hard disk space after installing the June 16 or June 19 virus definitions. Those definitions included an enhancement to Norton AntiVirus's ability to scan script-based threats. This included a read of all sectors in the file, until the End OF File (EOF) was reached.

In some cases, the scanning engine was passed a file to scan that does not have an EOF associated with it, named CLOCK$. The file appears as a file of infinite length to Norton AntiVirus, causing a much longer processing time. What appears to be a system hang is actually a system slow down while Auto-Protect is attempting to scan this file.

However, because the user believes the computer is hung, the user may reboot before Norton AntiVirus has completed the file scan, possibly causing incomplete file writes in one of Norton AntiVirus's temporary work files. When the system is rebooted, ScanDisk may run and detect lost clusters in the incomplete temporary work file. Due to the size of the file, ScanDisk believes the lost clusters are part of a directory rather than a file. ScanDisk, therefore, creates various directories in the root directory of drive C:, such as 'DIR00000', "DIR00001", etc.

Yep meaning

Meaning that all of your problems (well, apart from the icon on the desktop) could be down to your virus detection file in your Norton Anti-Virus software. Go into Norton Anti-Virus and click LiveUpdate. Download ALL updates that it says are available. Reboot after that and see if it's better.