"Windows Protection Error", "VCACHE", problems booting and crashin

I assumed this was a software problem at first but since it started to happen again, even after a very smooth reformat, I think it has to be somehow related to some hardware of mine, but I'm not certian. Below is my plight.

Basically what happened:

-PC has been running smooth last few weeks. Haven't touched anything like drivers, settings, etc. Just load game, play, quit. This evening game freezes my PC. Ok, whatever, suprising but not unbelieavable. However, when I restart, the PC restarts soon as I try to load the game through desktop icon.

-For next half an hour, PC does all these wierd things. Restarting when I click icons, freezing, screen going crazy colors (like millions of pink and green dots), loading in Safemode, etc. Finally, it stops loading even. It says, "Windows Protection Error - Please restart your computer". So I do and I get the general Normal/Safemode/etc menu. If I try to load normally, I get that same quote. If I use Safemode, I get a similar quote: "While iniating device VCACHE - Windows Protection Error - Please Restart". Basically I'm stuck in a loop, no matter if I load Safemode or normally, before I get anywhere near the desktop, "Windows Protect" keeps forcing me to restart.

-I'm at a lost so I figure I might as well format. Wipe the disk, install the OS, boot up. Get my vid, sound, etc, DirectX, Windows Updates, etc -- everything all updated nice and good, smooth, the PC restarted many times. At this point I figured everything was fixed and my PC was very healthy, it was running smooth and fast.

-I'm about ready to install my first game but I figure I'll restart it once more so it goes super smooth. Soon as it hits desktop, my PC freezes mid through the general welcome tune. Nothing like a freeze greeting you after a fresh format. I restart. Remember that "Windows Protection" loop I couldn't get past. I'm there again, right after a fresh format.

-However, once I leave Scandisk running, and this time instead of getting that VCACHE Windows Protection error, it loads to desktop. First thing I do is turn my Sound template from Windows Default to Off. I never used to have it on, and it froze during it, so figure maybe there's a problem with it and some update I got. Who knows. I restart.

-PC loads up fine, no errors. So I decide to try download this game, it uses a Bit Torrent Client. It gets download and it runs..... PC restarts.

-And I leave it, Scandisk goes through, it loads into Safemode and says "New Hardware Found, put in yer Win98 CD". I don't bother, click OK to see the details. File it wants is "bios.vxd", for "Plug and Play BIOS (Fail Safe)". I got this once or twice up at the top, during that 30 minutes of odd stuff too.

-I restart again, ship Scandisk, and it loads real slow. Then it loads desktop, or atleast some. Background loads fine, as does my taskbar, but nothing on my desktop shows, and I can't interact with my taskbar. I restart and it loads slow again but right at the black screen before my desktop loads, my PC just restarts by itself.

-The normal/safemode menu appears this time on load up and I go into safemode. Back at the "While iniating device VCACHE - Windows Protection Error - Please Restart" message. I restart and Scandisk doesn't even appear. I select Safemode a few more times and I just keep getting this error. If I try to load normally, same error, without the "iniating VCACHE".



So basically I'm curious, what in the world is wrong with my PC? What causes the "Windows Protection Error"? What's my "VCACHE"? Why would this happen suddenly to my PC? I figure something with my hardware must be messed, if it started happening not an hour every a smooth reformat. Any idea what piece of hardware is screwed? Basically looking for any info at all. What caused it, why, and how can I fix it?