Serious Computer Problem.?

Question

So I come home from work around 8 in the morning, since I work night shift.
I turn on my laptop and notice that it waits at the light blue screen where it shows the stats of the computer, like what the OS is, HD info, and the processor for like 5 minutes.
It finally boots up to Windows and it takes so long for everything to come up and load, when it usually happens right away, and none of my major programs will open.
They all receive errors.
Programs like Itunes, AIM, Sony Vegas. there is also a Net Framework error, and a problem with Microsoft. net runtime.
Smaller programs work such as VLC media player, Paint, Notepad.
There are also some other weird things going on.
When I open Mozilla Firefox, the scroll bar is on the LEFT side of the screen instead of the right.
Flash is no longer installed, or so it says.
Also the customized look of it isn't there.
I will post pictures of this, and the current processes.
I have a Dell Latitude D600.
Windows XP Home Edition.
PLEASE help.
Here are some pics.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2646/compweird1.png
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/77/compweird2.png
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/5198/compweird3.png

Answer 1

As ME suggested, it is time to run some antivirus scans. Also I see you have updates from MS to install. Could be you have a virus. That would be my first observation. Gotta keep things updated to make sure you are 'clean'. I also try to delete those temporary internet files once in a while, run the 'disk cleanup', and then defragment as minor maintenance procedures.

When really strange things start to happen out of the blue then it's really time to start the scans, update and clean things up. good luck. I would like to see the results of the scans as well.

Answer 2

Whoa you've got loads of processes running !?!

If i were you then I would end all possible processes, the system processes wont be disabled so you will be safe, also get an AV program such as McAfee, an anti spyware program such as spybot search & destroy and MBAM (Malware Byte's Anti-Malware).

If these steps dont work then I would suggest that you seek professional help



Let me know what your virus scan results show plz and I might be able to provide further help



Hope this helps :)

Answer 3

Difficult to diagnose without more detailed error messages. I suspect you're getting something like: "Missing system disk or operating system" Most commonly this is due to a floppy drive left in the PC. Sorry to be patronising but that's the truth. If not then it does sound like either your hard drive is kaput or the hard drive controller on the motherboard. There are a number of diagnostic utilities you could use to verify this. The simplist are checkdisk that comes with windows. I suggest, though, that you re-ask with full and exact error messages, or if there are no error messages then please describe exactly what you are seeing on the screen during one of these failures. There are so many things it *might* be but we really need more detail to do a remote diagnosis and offer anything more than guesswork.

Answer 4

Based on my analysis of the given info, the problem seems to be either a virus, in which case I would recommend a good antivirus program, or a failing hard drive. if the issue is the latter, you should back up all of your data on an external source and consider replacing your current hard drive.

Answer 5

the fact that it waits so long at the "stats" screen kinda suggests to me that your hard drive is failing and getting bad blocks, these can occur anywhere in the disk and one or two is not usually a problem, but if its failing big time you could be loosing(corrupting) data all over the place, look in your event logs and see whats there



of course it could just be swine flu, i mean a virus.

Answer 6

Download and run spybot