Disaster has struck my RiscPC

Disaster has struck. For only the second time since 1982 has my acorn
computer failed me. My original BBC B died of power supply failure, the A
5000 never missed a beat and the RiscPC (nowSA) bought in 1996, has been
soooo reliable. But alas, now being very much an end user, I don't know
what to do. Would the faithful in the northern hemisphere please advise me
if anyone can.

The problem: The computer boots happily and screen appears normally.
However any attempt to click on an icon (any button), either on the icon
bar or on the well populated pinboard/desktop evokes an error message.
Quitting or cancelling removes the icon. Describe (if available) yields
info (see below). 'Tis the same for each icon, until all are removed.
Often after clicking on several pinboard icons the whole of the pinboard
blanks. I can not even shutdown, the Task manager suffers the same result.
I can access the Command Line via F12 and run a simple program from the
root directory eg !ConfInfo successfully.

Typical Errors: HD's, ADFS,IDEFS,SCSI
Application may have gone wrong.
Click Describe; Internal error: undefined instruction at &022D924B*,


Typical Errors: Internet (ANT Suite)
Internal error, no stack for trap handler: Internal error: undefined
 instruction at &022D924B*, pc=022A9120: registers at 00018CF8#


* and # or similar addresses, differing I think, after different boots.
Normally the same address for each icon per boot.

The Computer: RiscPC 710 now SA, Riscos 4.02, 130M (2x64+ 2VRAM) +IDEFS
+SCSIFS, +Network card.

The problem does not occur if I Shift-Break to restart, hence not running
the !boot file(s). Runs in Mode 28. All programs seem to run as expected,
allowing for those which have a problem with finding specific paths.
Clicking on !Scrap and !System solves alot of that. The Internet (Ant) and
the network seem OK, Mail and newsgroups do their thing as does OvnPro.

What was I doing when the problem occured: I had noticed on the net that a
new version of Decor, the desktop wallpaper controller that I have used for
years was available. I downloaded it, removed the old copy from tasks and
replaced it with the new one. Rebooted. Error message saying can't find
Decor choices, going to use defaults. OKed this and so rebooted. Now the
problem. No worries, I'll just Shift-Break and remove the Decor. Made no
difference and nothing I have done since has helped. I'm well and truely
stuck.

So what have I tried to solve it. Many Delete/R Power Ons. Reset the
Tasks Boot, replaced the whole !Boot directory with a backup (1 month old).
Restored the CMOS with a Saved file (1 year old). Lots of cursing etc.
Pulled everything out and checked connections, rom seatings, memory
seating, used 1 64M bank then the other. Nothing made any difference.


Because of my difficulty in reading my news, could I ask anyone, who knows
what is wrong (and how to fix it), to email me at
bmcquill@xxxxxxxxxxx

I can read (and send) using PNC webmail on a PC.

Cheers
--
Brian N. McQuillan
WINMALEE NSW 2777
AUSTRALIA.

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