Here is a good link for troubleshooting help. Troubleshooting is simply the process of narrowing down the possible reasons for your hardware or software problems and then fixing it. FWIW, most of your problems will be software-related: a bug, a corrupted file, a problem in the Windows registry, a lack of compatibility with hardware, etc.
- Turning off all unnecessary programs (processes) is a good idea. You do this by clicking the Start button, finding the search box (on XP, Vista and 7 it's in slightly different locations), typing in "msconfig" (with no quote marks around it) and hitting the enter key. You will find the file called msconfig, which is the System Configuration utility. You would be wise to pin this to the taskbar or Start menu, because you will use it often. Anyway, start up the utility by left clicking on it. Click the Startup tab. You will see a list of programs that automatically start up when Windows does. Usually, most of these are not absolutely necessary. You can uncheck them and click Apply. Now, click the Services tab. You will see a long list of services that are both in Windows and installed by other programs. Click "Hide all Microsoft services". Now you will only see the programs you (hopefully) installed. If you see something that is totally strange to you, then malware installed it. Anyway, uncheck all these programs unless you think it's absolutely necessary to keep it running. Click Apply again, click OK. At this point you may get a window asking you if you want to restart now or later. Reboot (restart) now. When Windows boots up again, you will see the window saying you are in diagnostic mode, which is fine. Try using your programs and web browser, etc. If you are ok now, one of those programs was the culprit. Obviously, if it's a program you did not install, you need to do malware removal with at least two antivirus programs. One antivirus program usually does not get them all. Two examples of good, free antivirus programs are Malwarebytes and Superantispyware. There are many other good ones of course, and some excellent ones you must pay for.
- Malware is, many times, the reason for your computer problems. Once you've used two antivirus programs on your machine and gotten rid of anything strange, you can focus on other reasons for the problem. Internet search is extremely helpful in this regard. Worst case scenario is, you have to completely reinstall Windows and all your other programs and data. If you can backup your data and programs fairly easily, that may be the answer. Reinstalling Windows takes, typically, no more than one hour. Finding an answer on the internet sometimes takes longer than that. The choice is yours.
- Sometimes you have to boot up in Safe Mode. You can do a lot of things much more easily in Safe Mode than when all the Windows processes are running. There are some things you cannot do, which you will find out very quickly. The link I just gave you gives you excellent instructions for Safe Mode.
- You may find through your research that the problem is with a buggy program, or that your program is not compatible with your version of Windows. Basic point: You always must use 32 bit programs if you have a "normal" 32 bit OS. If you are using Windows 7 x64 or Vista x64, you usually can use 32 bit programs. You only need x64 if you plan to use 4 gigabytes of RAM or more.
