"There Will be Bitings!"

Is what my Inner Tiger is saying.

The tail started twitching and the growlings have been growing for about a month now, as my computer has started acting up in some very specific and wierd ways. (I'm entering this from Sonya's computer)
It's been revolving particularly around some wierd issue with the modem. Well, first, my modem died, and then I got a new, faster one, which was happiness for a while, but...
More and more often I'd be online and get kicked off for no good reason. When I listen in while it dialed in during these situations, I'd hear a wierd "echo" on the line, and at the worst, strange noises indeed as the machine tried to get online. I'd get there, but then things would slow down for no reason and at random, innoportune moments, I'd be kicked off again. The echo would get worse and it would be harder and harder to get on, eventually impossible. Rebooting seemed to help, until yesterday. Now, the computer won't even go into "Safe Mode" and gives me the following message:
"Invalid VxD dynamic call to device #3, service B. Your Windows configuration is invalid. Run the Windows setup program again to correct this problem."
jmax315 confirms that reloading Windows is precisely NOT what I want to do before saving my other data somehow. Thankfully he has installed a Linux partition which he says can be used to back up everything else.

We're getting out a home equity loan for the car and for other big upgrades on the house, and so Sonya has decided that I've suffered with bad computers enough. We're going to replace mine with a new one that has what I need on it, and it's functionality proven before it leaves the store.

In the meantime I'll be logging in thru Sonya's computer.
My email will be the same, but it might take me a wee bit longer to answer it.

Also, thankfully, I got an email this morning that had the phone number I needed.

And jmax315 has offered to help retrieve all my data via that Linux partition he installed.

And then, the Bitings shall begin....