My most recent visit to PC hell came when I tried to upgrade from America Online version 4.0 to 6.0. My PC started going bonkers once the new AOL was installed. My browser stopped browsing. I got reacquainted with Windows' insidious "blue screen of death." The error, verbatim: "Filename: UMB (01) + 00013DF9 Error: OE:0028: C0014DF9."

Uninstalling AOL 6.0 did not eliminate my troubles. My cable modem was on the fritz, so I phoned Time Warner customer support. After I languished on hold, a rep told me they had been having a lot of problems with 6.0 and had been instructed to send people directly to AOL. Their fault, not ours.

I didn't want to start over. So I pleaded my case and got bumped up the support chain. A "third tier" Time Warner rep said AOL has posted a software patch to fix the problem, but 50% of the people in my boat, he claimed, end up having to reformat their hard drives. We mucked around the networking settings on my computer and seemingly fixed the problem, all in a couple of hours.

The next morning, I got through to an AOL tech support guy fairly quickly. He said, "There's always a problem with new software." The official corporate line came later: Yes, a relatively small percentage of cable modem users ? maybe hundreds ? have run into snags like mine, a spokesman said. But AOL's support crew, he assured me, is well trained in handling the issue, and the patch should work fine.

Before I tried it out, my PC revisited the blue screen: "Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer. System halted." Ouch. I reinstalled 6.0, with an AOL techie on the line. Everything seemed fine till I rebooted, then it was back to the wild blue yonder.

Here's where I must give Windows Me credit. I used its System Restore feature to roll back the calendar a few days to a time when my PC was operating fine. It works. For now.

Just needs Kazzaa to completely take the pc to the dark side, forever