Windows Socket Error 0; Also disk scans hang.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.networking,microsoft.public.win2000.general,microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

My system hangs occassionally with a tiny system dialog box that says only
"Windows Socket Error 0", and an "OK" button. That's not much information
to go on.

Because the problem is intermittent, I cannot pin it to any specific changes
to my system. It seems to have crept up gradually, from quirk level to
annoyance level. Now it hangs my virus scans and spyware scans an hour or
two into the scan. Other than that, and a random, occassional need for a
reboot, my system runs fine.

Since scans are freezing the system, sometimes with the "Windows Socket
Error 0" message, and sometimes with just a freeze, I also decided to check
out the disk integrity. If I run a pre-boot CHKDSK, its first phase
(directory integrety??) runs fine. The second phase (full read-only scan)
eventually blue-screens. If I run Maxtor's disk drive diagnostics, it reads
the entire disk with no errors found. I have no problems at all with
Windows Exporer or Find.

Any suggestions on isolating the cause of the problems?

I am running W2K Pro 5.00.2195 SP4, and IE 6.0.2800.1106 SP1 + fixes. I am
also running Office 2000 including Outlook 2000 SP3.

- David

P.S., Please pardon the cross-post. I am not sure which is the appropriate
ng to address this problem.