I'm having problems with a General Protection Fault in Explorer. When
I click on any folder, the problem occurs. When I click on the Start
Menu, the problem occurs. I get random icons down the right side of
the screen, and the Explorer GPF occurs, then the screen
refreshes/resets itself (often with a few artifacts remaining). The
information I receive from clicking 'Details' is:

EXPLORER caused a general protection fault
in module <unknown> at 0000:00000973.
Registers:
EAX=ffffffff CS=03ff EIP=00000973 EFLGS=00000207
EBX=000003ff SS=03e7 ESP=00000040 EBP=00000004
ECX=000003e7 DS=2cd7 ESI=001302c0 FS=18af
EDX=03ff0934 ES=2087 EDI=04000014 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
26 89 07 0f ac d8 01 c1 f8 02 0f ac d8 05 c1 eb 
Stack dump:
00000000 758e2167 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 03020100 07060504 0b0a0908 0f0e0d0c 03010200 07050604
0b090a08 0f0d0e0c

I am using Windows 98 SE. The problem only occurred rarely until
recently. Now I have to hit Ctl+Alt+Del just to shut down. I have
checked for Adware, Spyware, and viruses already. The problem seemed
to get worse after changing my refresh rate, but changing it back made
no difference. The problem usually occurs when exploring the C: drive
or putting the mouse over "shut down" in the Start Menu, but has
occurred elsewhere occasionally.

How can I fix this?

Try replacing your memory (RAM) this might fix the problem.

Regards,
168c

168,

Thanks for the comment. The RAM - the whole computer - is new, though.
As it turned out, starting in Safe Mode somehow caused the deletion of
19 files... and fixed the problem.

Weird. Thanks for the assist, though!

- Adrian