Hey Patriotreview, thats really weird - I have a computer with virtually identical spec (except my duron's a 1.2gig) and it does EXACTLY the same thing (see my posting under the Win 98... section) Ive found that taking out the ram and putting it back in seems to solve the problem temporarily... I also thought it was my slave HDD to begin with and nearly bought a new one, but I also discovered it does it even when the drive isn't attached...
I've had a browse on the net, and it looks like it could be a RAM problem, but I would like to know a bit more before I go out buying loads of new hardware... Have you had any joy with yours since your post?