Witsend wrote:

I'd (reluctantly) reformat & reinstall IF the machine was
performing poorly, but it's not...

Go spend $50 for a new 80 gb hard drive and swap it into your computer
as the primary (C) drive and remove your existing drive. Then install
98 on the new drive. If you get it working, you can re-connect your
existing drive in the secondary or slave position and copy all of your
personal files from the old drive to the new drive.

Yes, you'd also have to re-install your apps to the new drive as well.