I'm a total COMPUTER novice, so please excuse my ignorance. A couple of days ago when I powered on my computer it told me I needed to enter the number contained on my Windows 98 booklet. I've had this computer for 5 years so I thought this was weird, but I entered the number and was able to use the computer. The next day when I TURNED it on I got an "Explorer" error box. My only choice was to click "CLOSE" but when I did this nothing happened. None of my programs started, none of my icons came up, I couldn't even see the mouse cursor. I tried rebooting but got the same Explorer error. I even started in safe mode and the same error came up. So basically, I can't access anything on my computer. Can anyone help or has my computer had it? Here are the details for the error message:

EXPLORER
This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists. contact the program vendor.
Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module EXPLORER.EXE at 0167:00401f31.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0167 EIP=00401f31 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000001 SS=016f ESP=0080feec EBP=0080fef4
ECX=c159b8b0 DS=016f ESI=00000000 FS=252f
EDX=0080fefc ES=016f EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 08 50 ff 11 8b 45 08 50 8b 08 ff 51 08 8b 45
Stack dump:
00401ee0 0080fefc 0080ff34 00405cac 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000001 00404436 00000000
0059fc0c 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000
Load a win98 boot disk....at the a:\> type chdsk......after it or scanreg/restore more info on hard drive 10gig/20gig??and how much ram 64/128?