Here's the info you requested

Sorry it has taken me so long - but all of this afternoon was occupied by the computer
doing it's thing.

I did disable the automatic restart on my computer - then I did run the disk check. I have two hard drives, and was amazed that the disk check on my second drive ran without me having to reboot to do it. First time for that. The other drive (my main one) did require me to re-boot to do so - it started at 3:30 this afternoon and finished up at 7:30 - a whopping long time, I thought.

Through it all, I never did get a BSOD - and when the disk check finished, the computer came up just as normal. I have not yet tried to re-boot again, to know that I won't get the same errors as before. Wanted to get you the info and see what you had to say first.

The two Windows updates (that did install, froze my machine, and that I prevented from installing when I used system restore to go back to before that time) were:
Update for Windows XP (KB936357
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - July 2007 (KB 890830)
I did look them up - the first was regarding Intel dual core processors - which I don't have, and the other was self-explanatory.

I also went to the HKEY reference you gave me and here is that info:
intelppm
for each entry there was a little flag icon with letters in it - then "Name" - "Type" and "Data"
ab (Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
ab Display Name REG_SZ Intel Processor
oii
ioo Error Control REG_DWORD 0x00000001(1)
ab Group REG_SZ Extended Base
ab Image Path REG_EXPAND_SZ System 32\Drivers\intelppm.sys
oii
iio Start REG_DWORD 0x00000001(1)
oii
iio Tag REG_DWORD 0x0000000d(13)
oii
iio Type REG_DWORD 0x00000001(1)

Under thie intelppm folder, there were two more:
ENUM
ab (Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
ab 0 REG_SZ ACPI\Genuine Intel_-_x86_Family_15_Model
_2\_0
oii
iio Count REG_DWORD 0x00000001(1)
oii
iio NextInstance REG_DWORD 0x00000001(1)

SECURITY
ab (Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
oii
iio Security REG_BINARY 01 00 14 80 90 00 00 00 9c 00 00 00 14 (this
goes on for a LOT of digits - I do have them if
you need them.

I hope all this makes some kind of sense to you - and you can let me know maybe - what is going on with my machine.
I do thank you so much for taking the time to tell me what to do and how to do it - I appreciate you trying to help me!

Trish