Well, after wading through a ton of junk, I *finally* found the culprit...a mouse driver. I have a new Logictech optical cordless mouse and I downloaded the driver for it, "setpoint 400", from the Logictech website. I failed to remove the old driver for the cordless "other brand" mouse before I put this one on & it must have caused a conflict. I went to MY COMPUTER - PROPERTIES - ADVANCED - STARTUP & RECOVERY - & unticked the "restart" box. When it would crash I got an error message instead of a restart & was able to track that down to the mouse driver.

Thanks so much for your time and effort TurcoLoco, I'm sure this won't be the last time I solicit help from this forum. I tell everyone who asks me about their rig problems that this is the best bet for fast & accurate advice!!

Thanx again!!