When I started trying to figure out what is going on with these file names, I searched and read other posts and have found the same problem described in other threads. The current thread was started by someone else. I use both techtool pro and norton system works and neither program finds any software or hardware problems. I am pretty sure that this is not a problem unique to my machine. I will say that I own alot of software and would not be suprised if there was a preferences Issue. But I don't want to trash all my preferences; It would take weeks to restore them. So I guess that I don't mind helping but I would need to have some idea of where to start.