Alan, I can't tell you what it is, but I can tell you how to fix it. Put your Win98 cd in your drive. Go to the Start Button, Programs, Accessories,System Tools and click on System File Checker. It will check all your System Files, when it gets to the GDI.EXE file, it will tell you that it is corrupted and ask if you want it replaced. Say yes, point it to the Win98 CD and it will be replaced. I have the same trouble with that file and also the USER32.DLL & WINMM.DLL. I keep all three files in the root dir. of my C:\ drive, so when one of them acts up, I drop down into DOS and copy whichever file into the Windows\System Folder. Usually clears it right up. Hope this helps you. Bill M. Smith [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] >Each program gets an illegal operating message referring to module GDI.EXE >Alan Priol.