First of all I want to thank ALL of you for your valuable input, experience and ideas.
PATTYANDME:
I never use the power button to shut down. I always use the Windows shut down procedure. There have been times in the past where a computer has gotten so screwed up i "had" to use the power button to shut down but those have rare.
KENHEART:
Done that several times in attempts to isolate the problem to hardware or software. I have gone so far as to remove all other drives, reformat them etc. No luck. I have run many, many diagnostic programs on Drive C with no problems reported as well as in depth memory tests which all came back ok. That is what has been the hardest about this problem, trying to at least determine if the problem is hardware or software which of course at least gives you a direction to work in. But, nothing has given me that direction.
LETMEBREAKIT:
I am very inclined to agree with you as the way to proceed (Shotgun! the darn thing, my words of course). Expensive of course, need new faster memory, CPU etc. to at least get up to date with the latest technology. On the other hand I really don't care what it costs if it solves the problem. I am gonna think about this for another day or two and will probably pursue hardware as the source of the problem. Gotta pickup on the best motherboard, memory, CPU to buy. Don't really give a D___ what it costs as long as I can fix it and move on. I live in a 55+ Community and support a lot of residents who have computers but don't know the first thing about them (i.e. Windows, Hardware etc.) so they depend on me for help a significant amount of the time.
PHLIM: Tried that more times than I can count. And yes, the BIOS is up-to-date, downloaded it and applied it several times.
Again, thanks so much to all of you for your input and help.
John