Illegal Operation

i'm working with a Dell Dimension XPS R250 MHz Pentium II Minitower base with MMX technology and 512K cache. Windows 98.
I'm suddenly being confronted with a window that reads "this program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If this problem persists, contact the program vendor."
When i checked the details it read as follows: "Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module <unknown> at 0000:5652497a"
When i click close the notice the computer shuts off. I can't access my email. I fear i have something terrible inside my poor computer and it's dying on me. it's soon to be 5-1/2 years old.
is it time to buy a new one?
help!

 

Some helpful(?) information I hope can be had here:

http://support.microsoft.com/direct...nding&rnk=48&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=WRD20

 

robo, you wrote: "you can always reinstall before Windows loads, by changing your boot order in BIOS to CD first, and running setup from the CD..."
how do i do that? i'm not all that well versed in changing my boot order. i wouldn't know where to begin.