[Title bars, drop down menus missing, Sys Restore malfunctioning, etc, etc]

Hello everybody I'm new to these forums so forgive me if I have posted in the wrong forums. I don't know my away around the technical aspects of a computer either so I guess I'm quite a "noob"

Well I have quite an old Laptop - the Acer Notebook and it was bought in 2001 I think . Anyways just recently since around the start of the year it has been playing up a lot. It happens randomly and it's really quite annoying, I'll give you a list of the things that happens.

What Happens:

• Drop-down menu's dissapear and I have to drag my mouse over it to view the items in the drop down box
• When I'm on forums posts just dissapear, you can see who posted them however the post is just cut off
• The top blue bar where it says Windows BBS Proved by Mozilla Firefox (not sure what its called) just goes blank, the start menu goes blank as well (the icon)
• The same with drop-down boxes happens to start menu, I have to run my mouse over it to uncover the files
• Sometimes the top bar completely dissapears
• Different parts of windows that are minimized are still on the window I'm looking at.
• I get the Blue Screen of death ^_^
• The functioning on everything is very poor and I have to completely turn of my computer and reboot it to fix it.

What I know:

• AVG Anti-Virus picks up nothing except for this crude virus which is one which is my mistake and wont let me get rid of it. It was some random one which says "Your PC keeps track of everything you visit, download this to clean your computer ", me being silly downloaded it and I'm not sure if it's the problem. I have read some threads now and I think I remember it to be WinAntiVirus2007
• System Restore doesn't work - it only allows me to restore to the month I'm on no further, so being July 2 I can only restore to July 1 =/
• When I go to Managing my MY Computer and look at System I have about 200 ERROR's in there
• I have a fair bit of space left so I'm sure thats not the problem
• I have limewire with lots of content (Music & Videos)

As you can see my computer is in quite a state and literally impossible to use properly for half an hour - I am losing my mind with it and really need help! Currently I'm trying Disk Defragmentations and it's taking a LONG TIME I mean a REAL LONG TIME, its 25% after an hour haha. So what else can I do - all help is greatly appreciated, is it Internet Explorer or my computer as a whole.

Also another cheeky error which is occurring is that quite randomly I hit a key or a shortcut or something and then all my text gets muddled up. Well it's just Y & Z get swapped around, all my side symbols like :;[][',.,/!@#$%^&((_+ they all go wierd alt lettered codes and get all swapped around and weird. Anybody that can help me fix that problem as well is a legend ^_^.

Thanks for your time!
Harry

 

Thanks Pete, your very helpful

I'm currently downloading that debug file will post one of these "Dumps" you speak of

 

is this what you mean??

Opened log file 'c:\debuglog.txt'

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.7.0005.0
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini031707-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is: SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is: C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export symbols for ntoskrnl.exe -
Windows XP Kernel Version 2600 (Service Pack 2) UP Free x86 compatible
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS Personal
Built by: 2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519
Kernel base = 0x804d7000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x8055a420
Debug session time: Sat Mar 17 08:31:09.925 2007 (GMT+10)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:28:56.485
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export symbols for ntoskrnl.exe -
Loading Kernel Symbols
................................................................................................................................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
..........
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export symbols for ialmdev5.DLL -
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 100000EA, {856973d8, 8574ca30, f7a3dcb4, 1}

ANALYSIS: Kernel with unknown size. Will force reload symbols with known size.
ANALYSIS: Force reload command: .reload /f ntoskrnl.exe=FFFFFFFF804D7000,213F80,42250FF9

 

I'll find a later one, that was at the top of the list.
I've been told to upgrade graphics driver, heres the new dump I think, wait that was from 05. confused! hang on ;D

heres another from the second on my list

Opened log file 'c:\debuglog.txt'

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.7.0005.0
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini032607-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is: SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is: C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers


bit smaller ?

edit: yes I was connected

 

Thanks Pete

Where was the thread specified where I could reload my Graphics driver, I'm not sure what to do or if I missed where you said I could do it.

I don't run Norton Anti-virus, it's on my laptop but has no subscription and has not been running for around a year. AVG is all I use

 

Acer Notebook Extense 2300 Series

Model Number: ZL1

 

Thank Pete, I'm installing now