I have 98 original with all the updates that are available on the MS Web Site. I originally installed it late 98, but have done a reinstall maybe twice since then (not the format c: type). I have an Asus P2B, 300 PII OC'd to 450 (one of the ones with the right date like Tom's first reported), 300W P/S, 128MB Mushkin CAS2, SBLive, Matrox 400, Internal Zip, KenWood 72X, Maxtor 27GB, Maxtor 10GB (both 7200, UDMA33), Internal Modem, USB Scanner and Printer. I have Norton 2000 Pro Installed, and about 2 years worth of software, 50+ titles (although some software has been removed). OK ok hold on to your seats, my registry is about 14MB. But hey, that is MS fault, not mine. The computer is used by myself and 3 other family members, a total of about 10 to 15 hours per day. Don't do much gaming, mostly internet (IE5), MS Office, and some multi-media educational software. Lockups have been the norm two or three times a week since about 6 months after I first built it. Starting about a month ago, lockups have increased to twice a day, sometimes more if I spend a lot of time on the web (i recently reinstalled IE5.1 thinking that might help, notta.)
The most common lock ups are when I am on the web with 4 or 5 apps running, and there is about a 75% chance that within one hour of surfing, the mouse is going to freeze. I have no resource conflicts.
Oh, and it always occurs when I leave the computer on over night, the mouse moves, keyboard is NOT locked up, but nothing is active, all dead icons and menus. Ctrl-Alt-Del tells me Msgsrv32 is not responding. Its a APM (power mgmt) system for the puter. I researched both MS and Symantec. MS is aware of the problem and suggests that you disable APM in Dev Mgr under System Devices. Did that, notta. Then I shut off APM in the BIOS and removed the device from Dev Mgr, notta.
Oh and then I always get a lot of shut-down hangs, depending on what software has been run, how long the puters been running (and yes, fast shut-down is disabled).
I recently ordered SE update from MS, haven't installed it yet. I am not to thrilled with my options at this point: Start fresh; 98, 98SE, ME, 2K. Its like, do you want the burlap or wool underwear sir?
Not much incline to change to linux or BeOS or Mac either.