Pentium Puberty?

I am trying to decide whether my computer is going through puberty or menopause. The symptoms are: sudden changes of behaviour, temper tantrums, failure to communicate, and a desperate need of a face lift (reinstall).

My gaming seemed doomed without a reinstall because of cd-rom problems when I tried to load games. (The computer can't find a sound or video codec and hangs during opening movies). I remembered that 'Rise Of Nations' dislikes virus scanners so I disabled mine. The game worked fine. I tried this with other games with mixed success. At least I can still game until I do the reinstall.

A friend suggested I take the machine into a computer service shop and get it done. This way I could move some RAM from my old machine and transfer the LS-120 drive to this computer. (I have some data on LS-120 tapes). This is a good idea because I don't have the tools or experience to do the job. I would like to reinstall Windows myself for two reasons: I would save money at the shop - since they would have less to do - and I would gain more experience. (I formatted my old computer and reinstalled Windows last year.)

Actually I like to think of this phase as menopause. Brain surgery at puberty would be traumatic!