Memory Testing Problem +

Bit of a odd one this, wasn't sure which forum to put it in. A while back I had some problems with adware and spyware and what not and one day my machine just crashed and from then just froze at 'memory testi' and didn't do anything. Pushing del repeatedly before start-up would take it into bios and from there I turned on the fail safe options and this seemed to solve the problem (it turns that trend chip away virus on) I immediately just decided to re-install xp service pack 2 and format my drives, because it was so clogged anyway. When I finally got the machine running again I found that it couldn't find any of my usb drives and smartmedia,MMD slots, no matter what. So off I go to bios and find that the usb controllers (I forget what its labled exactly) is disabled. So I enable it and wayhey they all return, including my slots.

Ok so, enough back story. The other day I aquired some spyware/adware yet again but nothing major, used a few programmes and the guides on here and more or less cleared it up. Then it crashed and guess what? It stuck on 'memory testi' again. So I go and turn on and off the fail safe options but I make sure that the usb controller is enabled. Still wont work. So I disable it and it works. I renable it again and it sticks at memory testi again this time though I just left my machine running and after about 5 minutes it finally comes on. The usb is found but not my media centre stuff (smartmedia etc etc) that I can live with. But now if I play games (even little things like pinball) or videos, they skip every 15 seconds or so. Not only this my machine takes about 10 minutes to load into xp every single time I boot up. But once there, there doesn't appear to be any noticable problems with using the internet,word and general windows use.

Its a medion pc with xp service pack 2, if thats any help. Dunno if it has anything to do with anything but I can put the hijackthis log on to if need be.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

do you have an extra (known working)memory module you can swap in? maybe you could borrow one from a friend?