windows sluggishness question

ok, i've been working on this laptop (cousin's son, donated to cousin because of problems) for about 1 week now (dell inspiron 5100 - windows xp2, pentium 4, 2.66 ghz, 256 ram, now 512 ram). however my compaq presario (amd athlon 64, 3000+, 797 mhz, 512 ram), is a little bit snippier than this one. i cleaned as much of the crap off of it as i could. i then went thru the malware forum, and it is deemed clean. also, all the programs that i use (antispy, antivirus scans, etc), i have on my comps), so i don't think this should be an issue.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=159082 <-- Vundo, and a bunch of other stuff...

now, it's sluggish booting up (prior to windows), then once i get to the login screen it's still sluggish. once it boots up, and is running it seems fine. i'm wondering if i should try to do a repair of windows? if so, i'm not exactly sure how (link below). i've just noticed stuff here and there that don't seem right. however this is a problem that i've recently seen (screenshot below), notice i can't select anything.

if i try a repair (i have an oem disk?), is this the option that i want (link below)?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10511748@N06/2481921466/sizes/o/

fyi, i've just recently defragged, and have gone thru my registry (with ccleaner), and another, and it still seems the same. any ideas, comments? thx, sos

edit - i would do a clean install of windows (my disk, and their key), but they have microsoft office, and at this time i don't know if it came with the comp. i'm just trying to get some opinions.

 

You can use the Jalapeno Keyfinder to get the Office key from the PC (unless it's Office 2000). Then you can use your Office disk if you have one and it's the same version. Anyway, a repair install is probably a good idea at this point. Toggle the system restore 'switch' first to clean all the restore points before doing the install (right click My Computer > Properties > System Restore; check the little box, click Apply, wait a bit, uncheck the box, click OK), and be sure you have all the drivers on a CD; sometimes repair installs don't go as smoothly as one would hope. Occasionally all the user profile info and personalized settings, desktop shortcuts, file associations, and the like get 'lost' during the repair. The end result is that all the stuff in My Documents is still there, and the Program Files folder still has all the programs in it, but none of the installed software will run, and none of it comes up under Start > All Programs or is the software listed in Add/Remove Programs. This is because the file associations and their .DLL files (among others) get disconnected. On the plus side, all the documents, pictures, and music will still be there, and should be functional once the programs that open 'em are re-installed. But don't let this dissuade you from trying the repair; this only happens 1 out of 25 or 30 repairs (in my experience) or maybe even 1 in 40, so the odds are on your side. Here's a link with step-by-step screen shots on how to do a repair install of WinXP:
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxphome/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm

Good luck!

[dlb]
:major

Oh yeah... Jalapeno Keyfinder http://www.majorgeeks.com/Keyfinder_Thing_Lite_d5253.html

 

lol, i've never heard of jalapeno keyfinder, i've always used magical jellybean finder (which the new version won't let you change the key, but older versions will). i don't happen to have this version of ms office (they have 2002), and i only have 2k. anyway, they had taken it to geeksquad (they told them about $300 or so), to fix it. they (relatives) also told me that they think they have what they need already, so i'm not really worried. i've backed up some stuff, but whatever. i'll give it a go. thx, sos

 

bah, stupid thing won't let me into the bios now!! :confused i was able to do it all along, and now it won't. i'm trying to get it to boot from the cd. if i run the cd in normal mode, the key i input (from this laptop), won't run (it says it's invalid). i've checked the laptop label, but it's a totally different key. i do know the os key (installed now) is legit, as i've been able to do ms updates. i'm not sure if my problem is because i have an oem disk, and this key is from dell os disk? - sos

 

bah, stupid thing won't let me into the bios now (f2 to get into bios)!! :confused i was able to do it all along (prior to malware removal), and now it won't. i'm trying to get it to boot from the cd. if i run the cd in normal mode, the key i input (from this laptop), won't run (it says it's invalid). i've checked the laptop label, but it's a totally different key. i do know the os key (installed now) is legit, as i've been able to do ms updates. i'm not sure if my problem is because i have an oem disk, and this key is from dell os disk? - sos

edit - jalapeno finder shows me the same key as magical jellybean finder.

 

well, i had to go over to the dell forums. it looks like it's a know bios problem (not being able to get into the bios). i merely had to d/l a bios update (.iso file), burn it to disk, take out my h/d (because i could not change boot order), and it read the disk. once, the bios was updated, i could finally get back into the bios. i did a repair of windows (had to contact microsoft, to validate the os), and it didn't fix my problem. it does load up quicker, but i still can't change the way the ms updates are done.

it also turns out that i had 1 letter/number wrong in the key. i'll probably order a dell disk, as i think their comp came with ms office, which i don't have. - sos