Hi,

I downloaded LimeWire a month ago and began downloading mp3 files. In the last month my computer has had a series of problems that have gotten increasingly worse, to the point where I can't even boot it. My computer is somewhat old, and I'm trying to tell if it is a virus, software problem, (caused by Limewire) or a hardware problem.

Here's what happened:
1. Internet Explorer started crashing.
2. Limewire started to crash my computer when I started it.
3. Started getting BSOD whenever I ran more than one application at a time.
4. BSOD practially all the time - kernel32.dll errors, vsx errors
5. Tried to download anti-virus software but it crashed every time. Computer also crashed when copying files.
5. My IT friend decided it was the OS (Win 98) and started to reinstall it but computer crashed in the middle of installation and then would not boot.
6. Thought maybe the hard drive was bad and got a different hard drive (used but functional). Connected it as the master - tried to install W98 - but it doesn't start up all the way (desktop w/ no icons, no start menu)
7. After much agony and experimentation determined that one of my RAM chips was bad and removed it. Crashing when copying or downloading files stopped, but my directories are all messed up because it had crashed when reinstalling W98.
8. Got it to work briefly with my old drive as the master and the new one as the slave, but suddenly today it won't even boot and the startup disk does not recognize the drive. Eek!

Could a virus from Limewire actually cause hardware problems and destroy my RAM? (and/or my hard drive? Could it cause serious problems with my OS? Or is it a hardware problem and not related to Limewire?

I'm reluctant to reformat my original hd because I got the computer from a friend, and it has a lot of software that I can't replace. Of course at this point, I don't have many other options.

Any comments or help would be MOST welcome!

Thanks,

Julie