My computer is also having a problem.. or so.. >_>

[THEEVILSPERKY]

Windows XP...

I've never successfully started up without the start-up sound skipping.  What's this a sign of?  Other than my computer being sucky.

I have 384 MB of RAM I believe.. I'm pretty sure I need more.

I run into system critical errors and stuff of that sort.

I have strange processes running when I open up Task Manager (anywhere from 30-60+).

IE pops up with ads despite my main browser being FF.

Help the Sperky get rid of viruses and the above and maybe win a VC game... I dunno.. is that an incentive?

[…]

Back up anything important, or anything you want to keep, then format the drive and if necessary reinstall the OS. It's not the fastest solution though. Also after that you'll have the pain of downloading all those updates.

[JMV]

Install Linux.

[THEEVILSPERKY]

Reinstalling the OS is only necessary if the formatting doesn't solve my problems, okay.   I don't have any way of reinstalling the OS though..

I think I'm going to upgrade my RAM regardless of what this laptop's fate is..

[JMV]

Reinstalling the OS is only necessary if the formatting doesn't solve my problems, okay.   I don't have any way of reinstalling the OS though..

I think I'm going to upgrade my RAM regardless of what this laptop's fate is..

whoa whoa whoa

If you format it you're going to need to reinstall the OS since it clears everything off of the partition.

[THEEVILSPERKY]

Then.. I have another problem.. uh-huh, I see, I see.

Any method for making a disk that will allow me to reinstall the OS?

[JrDude]

Start from a distance, run toward your computer monitor, then forceably push your head into the monitor. It should work.

[THEEVILSPERKY]

Start from a distance, run toward your computer monitor, then forceably push your head into the monitor. It should work.

I'm now both on my laptop and desktop... neither of which use a CRT monitor.. heh. >_>

As for what you suggested.. maybe it'd work.. maybe not.. but I'm not sure what you'd be aiming to accomplish.. o_O;

I'm in the process of cleaning up both computers.. defragmenting.. and hunting out viruses and the like on my own.. then off to share folders.. so my two crappy computers might seem like one half-decent one with two sets of interfaces... maybe.. heh.

[Genius]

Well, you all give pretty extreme advice.

It's most likely an adware problem.  No guarantees that you'll be able to manage to get rid of everything, but it can't hurt to try.

First, get Spybot and Adaware.  Run those, remove whatever it finds.

While you're doing that, open the start menu, run, type msconfig.  That'll bring up your startup configuration.  Click the startup tab, and uncheck anything you don't need.  If you're not sure, get a screenshot, and I can tell you what you can safely disable. 

Then click the services tab, click hide all Microsoft services, then take a screenshot of what's left and post that. 

Get an anti-virus, run that too.  Try both Antivir, and AVG.  Scan with both of those, tell me what shows up.  Remove anything that's detected.

Do that for now, and update when you've got more to show.  Particularly the screenshots I mentioned.

And while RAM isn't your main problem, if you do any multitasking, it definitely wouldn't hurt to get some.  It can't hurt to have more.  You'll notice improvement in everything.

[extraz]

-yes you probably should have more RAM, but, you have more than enough to run XP fine.

-sounds like you ran into some spyware, get rid of it, and get a firewall