problem sorted (i hope). i read somewhere that it was advisable to set the bios to defaults before installing, which i did, and XP now works like a charm, no crashes, and now seems to love my Creative GeForce 2MX

one problem still remains, which i had on the old install. the luna desktop option has now disappeared (it was there at the start)from the "windows and buttons" option in appearance, i only get "windows classic style". i fixed this before as the theme files in the resources folder had corrupt filenames, but this time round with a good install, the filenames are intact, but the problem remains.

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"you can tune a PC, but you can't tuna fish"