hmm ok, well guess i'm doind a re-install.... the problem is not one thing but random occurences of windows just freaking out, for example , the internet ramdomly going down, different version of antivirus programs just decide to stop working, profiles deleting and recreating themselves. i've done 2 full clean installs with no fix in sight, and i've had weird similar issues before with sp2 , so the easiest fix at the moment other than pulling the hdd is to remove sp2., unless other people have some suggestions? thx