"Please, please tell me what the correct "configuration" is."

A computers configuration is the sum of hundreds of factors ranging from the hardware, to the drivers, to installed software and administration practices. Obviously it is impossible to completely and exhaustively give you a practical and complete idea of the "correct" configuration.

For my money? I would say it's a driver problem... but that's just intuition :)

"To all others debating the OS problem...CL says Poser 5 will work with Win98."

Poser5 does work with Win98 - as well as Win98 will ever work with high memory demand programs. However Win98 is a dramatically more fragile OS than Win2K and WinXP in every way. It is obvious and natural that Poser5 will have more problems with Win98 than Win2K and WinXP - as will all programs that have high demands on the system.

Personally? I hope CL (and everyone else) simply stop listing Win98 as a acceptable OS for software. it's dead, gone and buried... it is a waste of time and resources to support it.

Your simply NEVER going to be able to load as much stuff into Poser on a Win98 box as you will on WinXp box (assuming the system can run WinXP). It will never be as stable because the OS itself is dramatically less stable. When you couple that with the tendency for those running Win98 to be using obsolete hardware and it would take a miracle for CL to deliver the same experience as on a modern WinXP box.