Thanks very much. Specs are: CPU-AMD Athlon XP2600+, Samsung 80GB hard drive, 512 MB 333 MHZ RAM, Asus A7V8X Mainboard, Windows XP Home Edition, GeForce FX5200 Video Card. Computer is 3 yrs. old.
Last year, I was messing around and erroneously deleted some set up files... the shop where I purchased the computer repaired it by wiping the hard drive clean and re-installing all the programs... that was about 7 months ago.
I don't run/use anything unusual on the computer. I also have: Ad-Aware 2007, Firefox, IncrediMail, Nero OEM, Spybot 1.4. I have never downloaded Roxio. Since the removal of AVG, it's still working as normal. I would still like to get to the bottom of what caused, or could once again cause, the problem. I appreciate your feedback and help and that of anyone who takes this on.
Thanks all.