[FRC] Win98 Computer problems - HELP!

[Robert Shohet]

Hi Guys,

I am having some serious problems with my Dell Win98 V2
computer and I would appreciate any help that you can give.

Here are the problems which I suspect are related....

1)  It now takes about 10x-15x as long for a Microsoft XL
file to open as it used to (about 2 minutes)

2) The CD-ROM drive is rarely available (not ready) and is almost
impossible to get to open - I press the little button to open and
it does nothing.  Or when I click on start and browse d:\
it might say

D:\ Device is not ready

HOWEVER, on bootup if I press the CD-ROM button, the 
CD-ROM drive WILL open!

3) When I click on START and "Re-start in DOS mode"
it WILL NOT go to DOS mode! 

Problem #1 started about 6 weeks ago and problems #2 and #3
started recently with no apparent cause.

Yesterday I put on Norton Systemworks and ran all the diagnostics
including Disk Doctor and WinDoctor and aside from some errors being
corrected there did not seem to be anything wrong.  DiskDoctor and
WinDoctor did not show any error messages.

I DID apparently lose my C:\windows\system\VSHINIT.VXD file
since on bootup I get an error message that tells me that the Windows
Registry or SYSTEM.INI refers to this device but the device no 
longer exists.

Does anyone have any idea what is going on and/or what I can do
to fix these problems?

Many thanks!

Bob KQ2M