Reinstallation suggestions
How long since you did any disc maintenance ?? right click 'mycomputer' 'manage' 'diskdefragmenter', let it run.
Right click 'my computer' 'manage' 'event viewer' look at your error logs.
Open your case, is the cpu fan running, when Intel processors overheat they cut down to half speed vs AMD which burn up
Clean out the dust bunnies if you have never had it open with canned air. Myself, I would probably swap in a new power supply, seen them do funny things.
It is possible that enough damage has been done to warrant a reinstall. Copy important files to either a spare hd, cd-r, or dvd r. Do not bother copying software thats installed, it won't run just by copying it back generally unless it's a standalone that does not use the registery. Just copy your data files, word docs, xls spreadsheets, etc. Backup your email, if using outlook export your .pst file and put it on cd,
For best results reinstall following these steps:
Right click 'my computer' 'properties' 'device manager' write down all your drivers, network card, video card, sound card, modem model, etc.
Look at your system devices, see if you have an intel or via chipset, the first 4 or so listings will tell you, you may see something like '82443BX Pentium III', thats a 443bx chipset. Locate the drivers CD that came with your PC or motherboard, the motherboard will should have the manufacturers name, identify your motherboard and it's rev level.
If the MB is say an ASUS/Intel/MSI/etc go to their site and look up your model board, get it's specs. Download the latest bios, if it is an intel chipset go to intels site and download the latest chipset update, if it has an intel video driver pull that down also. Pull down the latest version of AVG antivirus put on cd-r, manually pull the newest signature update down from avg and store it with the avg so you can update the signatures file before you go back on the network, put the avg key they will email you when you download on a piece of paper for later use, NOTE:avg keys are 'case sensitive'. Unplug your cable from the cable modem to the network card, leave it out. Do not go back on the network untill you have antivirus software installed and updated. Make sure you have your win2k key handy before starting.
Boot from the 2000cd, delete the partition and recreate it, install.
After 2000 is reinstalled take the cd that came with your motherboard or that you downloaded and install in this order, chipset, disk drivers, video drivers but get that chipset in there first. Now go back to R click 'my computer' 'properties' 'hardware' 'device manager' and look for any uninstalled or unknown devices, tackle them next. Install the antivirus software and update the signatures. Put the network cable back in and bring the cablemodem/networking back up.
Go to windows update and do all the service packs and updates. From there it is just a matter of reinstalling all your software, it is a time consuming and PIA process which is why I have a spare hard drive and norton ghost comes in handy, once I have a machine where I want it I ghost an image to a drive with a norton boot disk, actually I have a norton ghost server running that I ghost to, that way if I ever need to wipe and rebuild I can do it in like 12 minutes. I had a HD fail last month, 20 days after a fresh install, got lazy and that one was of course the only one I had not ghosted, figures... Reinstalling difficulty is based entirely on how well you did the ground work in identifying your hardware and making sure you have the drivers for it. If it is a 'name brand' machine like dell it will have a drivers cd that should have all the drivers on it. If it's older then the drivers cd will also generally have older drivers and once running you should update them to newer versions, especially the chipset and dma drivers. Bios updates are also important, if the system won't recognize a 120gb hard drive thats a bios problem.
I think I pretty much covered everything.
One thing you can do before reinstalling, create and emergency repair disk, reboot the pc with the win2k disk in let it boot off of the cd, you can try the repair option but I have only had good results 1 out of every 9 times I've used it. It is a last resort before a resinstall.
Good luck and you really should get a hardware firewall next time. Those software ones like zone alarm and norton cause more problems and suck up an unbelievable amount of resources.
