Hi ~misfit~.  You wrote:

... boot into safe mode and check device manager for any devices
 that are no longer on your system and remove them.

Why do you have to do that in Safe Mode?

I'm in the device manager.  Been here before.  I haven't had such a variety
of peripherals over the years, so no extraneous drivers in there.  (My HP
Laserjet 2P is still on its 2nd toner cartridge.)  I recognize most of the
internal drivers -- only a few I don't have a clue about in System Devices,
but I assume they are all proper.

I wouldn't mind a handbook that listed a bunch of Windoze settings that
should be checked.  Just like the maxfilecache, I'm sure there are other
settings that could use an adjustment.

I don't know.  Sometimes a few months go by when my computer is rock solid,
too.  I expect it to crash occasionally, though, and it never lets me down.

Crashing doesn't seem to correlate to heat or CPU activity, so I think the
Powerleap upgrade is working OK.  Need to play with that Prime95 just to be
sure.  It was warm here today, and SETI Classic has been running all day,
and everything has been fine.  It's crashed a couple of times, but I restart
right away, and it works fine for the rest of the day.  That doesn't sound
like a CPU heating issue.

**I'm more concerned about my eBay memory, which arrived in pink
static-dissipative bags instead of proper silver static-shielding bags.**
What can you do -- amateur computer entrepreneurs.  I expect my "new" memory
will have reduced lifetimes because of improper handling.  I'm waiting for
them to fail, and I don't know what the symptoms will be.

I ran MemTest-86 v3.1a, did the default memory tests which exercised the
memory for a few hours, and there were no failures.  OK today, but what
about tomorrow?

I keep the resource meter opened in the toolbar, so at least I get a warning
if resources are becoming a problem.

It doesn't really crash often enough for me to complain about it.  And with
the new maxfilecache setting today, I expect all remaining problems to
vanish.

Write soon, write often.  Thanks.

-Neil-