Reality Factory

Yeah, I agree with bernie. It sounds like a hardware problem that a technician might be able to solve.

hm. ill check it out. it appears a fine layer of dust has appeared on the gfx card, but it shouldnt of slowed down my computer that much. for some reason the computer works completely fine if i run microsofts malicious software tool, which takes 20 minutes. i wish my bro let me install ubuntu

Hmmm.. so your computer runs fine after running the malicious software removal tool? Sounds like their might just be a big old nasty virus or something hiding out on your pc. My familys computer(Win XP) got a nasty virus about 2 weeks ago and it kept crashing the computer. Long story short I had to back up all data and reinstall(currently Ubuntu Linux). It was a strange virus that didn't let antivirus install(tried 3 of them) and web based scans from symantec couldn't even find it. If running the malicious software removal tool makes the computer run better, I would suggest another reinstall of the OS. Make sure you install a firewall and antivirus before connecting to the internet. That should fix any software errors that could be causing it. Also, I would make sure that no pieces of the system seem fried if there is a build up of dust on the components. I use a sweeper to clean out dust from my families computers. I am careful not to touch anything with the nozzle though as that might cause bad things to happen. Also sweeping/cleaning dust out of a pc can help prevent short circuits and possibly house fires if it gets bad enough!

oh yay. just reinstalled xp. now i cant even start it up, only in safe mode. regular startup is weird. on the boot screen, when it is finished loading the computer reboots.

i really wish i had ubuntu

Did You do a FULL reformat or just a quick one. A full reformat overwrites ALL the hard drive but takes an age to complete. I woud try that if you haven't already. If a virus is lurking there thats the only way to get rid of it. You could try a different hard drive also if you can get one to hand.

full reformat. i wanted to use the newer 80 gig hard drive, but my brother wanted to use both

ok I posted a reply some time last night seems to of gone? anyone know anything about this (mods?)

and your hard drives are set as primary andslave right? i had an old hard drive that couldnt be configured as either primary or slave (had no jumper conections at the back) this caused the computer not to start and to mess about as at the time i didnt realise these things.

Oh yes, that was the problem I didn't know enough about to avoid when I built my pc a year ago. There is a nice little plastic jumper that is on the back of the drive that can cause strange things to happen if there is not only one set to master. My problem was with DVD drives but I assume it is the same for hard drives as well.

i just reformatted it again. its fine