before you give up, you might try a fresh 3.9 install on another drive without boingbags 3-4.. those have caused me headaches and some others as well..
I also heartily recommend NOT using the hackathon "Boing Bag 3 and 4" Even though many knowledgeable amigans worked out these patch/hack upgrades i'm sure they can lead to a lot of instability especially for novice amiga os users.
