Freezes when trying to reboot

Using W98 lst Edition. Lately, my computer freezes when I try to reboot going Start/ShutDown/Restart. Also freezes frequently when trying to shut down with same process. Ctrl+Alt+Delete won't work. Have to use button on tower, then get nasty message about wrong way to shut down, followed by ScanDisk. Any ideas?

 

Are you getting any error messages with your problem?

 

Have you installed or un-installed anything lately?

 

No error messages. I have installed and un-installed a start-up watcher (couldn't understand how to use it) and I installed Ad-aware in the last week.

 

Here's what's running (I don't even know what some of these are): ZoneAlarm, Gwhotkey (?), Popfilter, Rnaapp (?), WinDates, Mcvste and Mcagent (McAfee), Starter (?), Stimon (?). If I don't know what it is, how do I find it to disable or close it? The starter watcher is Startman by PC Forrest. I got it at spywareinfo.com/downloads/startman.

 

Thanks, Robo. I'll work on this stuff. By the way, I'm the only one on my computer, so I don't logout of MajorGeeks. Lately, I've had to sign in each time I want to post a reply. What's happened?