There are rumors floating on the Hampshire (UK) LUG list that many of the recent patches for Win98/ME are destabilizing. They have been ported from XP patches without adequate checking - and there are a LOT of different combinations of patches possible between the original relase of 98, OEM2E, and ME.
Some people are suggesting that Microsoft is deliberately sabotaging this platform because they want to get it off their backs and migrate people to XP. Microsoft would never do something like that, would they?