PC is slow and certain features don't work

[tphillips75]

My PC running Windows 2000 Professional is extremely slow booting up 10-15 minutes minimum. Afterwards, certain features do not work. For example, I cannot copy and paste, certain hyperlinks won't work, I get errors about running scripts on certain webpages, and I cannot add or remove programs in the control panel (the window is blank). Occasionally, the screen will go blue and a physical memory dump will occur. What is wrong with my PC and how can I fix it? Thanks.

[Dave@Bytes]

Viruses, spyware, registry problems--all can cause this symptom.

Is reinstalling an option for you? You will lose all data on the C: partition.

What kind of PC do you have, and do you have all the disks that came with it?

If you have a custom PC, and if you have the Windows disk and the driver disks for your hardware (graphics, sound, motherboard, LAN, etc) then it's just a matter of rebooting the PC with the Windows CD in.

If you have a major brand PC, it's even easier. You'll need to put in the recovery disk and reboot. Setup will Install Windods and the drivers necessary to run the hardware.

If reinstalling is NOT an option. Run a good Virus scanner, download and run Lavasoft's Adaware.

[tphillips75]

I have run Adaware already. Can you recommend a good virus scanner? The virus scanner installed on my computer is not working as a result of the problems. I can reinstall but I don't want to if I don't have to. My PC is IBM T22 laptop.

[Dave@Bytes]

I like the commercial version or Norton Antivirus, but a lot of smart people in this forum like the FREE antivirus programs in our MUST HAVE DOWNLOADS section of this forum.