Has this happened to anyone else?

[Selby]

I had a really nice and long response typed out when IE decided to take a dump on it and make me lose it. In summary: hardware can fail without warning due to the necessary precise nature of the fabrication process and upgrading (format your drive and then install from scratch, "upgrades" are a nightmare) to 2k/XP will make you a happier camper in the long run as they are considerably more stable than the 9x line of OSes ever can hope to be.

Selby