Mystified by strange goings on! HELP PLS

I originally posted this late last week.

I recently got a free gateway 300s system which I gave to a neighbor. It is only 1 month old, and recently when they attempted to log into the computer, their taskbar was unusable(cursor would turn to an hourglass) and all their desktop icons were gone. I booted into safe mode, same issue. I tried loading last known good and got same issue. I then reloaded Win XP doing the repair option, and now my icons are back, and my taskbar is fully functional, but when I click on any icon or program, I get an hour glass on my cursor for a moment and then nothing. It is almost like the computer is running in some sort of windows Demonstration mode (if there is such a beast). The system also runs SUPER slow, such that when I log out, rather than it quickly doing so, it shows you each device it is shutting down and making you acknowlege each one. Gateway's answer is of course that I have a virus and need to Fdisk the system. The person I gave the system too has not backup up anything, and this is not an option I truely want to consider. Any ideas? sound like a virus?

Following some advice, I did the Fdisc and Format from the Win XP cd which is bootable and reloaded Win XP. Probs seemed to go away, but unfortunately, now there has been the follwoing error "another user is trying to log onto windows, all open applications will close and you will lose work" or something to that exptent. There is no other computers on the network. Just guessing, I told my neighbor maby someone was hacking in over his cable network. He installed Norton and a fairewall from Norton and error continues. Today I was looking at it, seeing if maby it was something to do with how he logs in. He gets no log in screen but goes directly to XP when reboots. Problem is, some of the old problems are coming back now it seems. When I tell computer LOG OFF, it shows a message for each item it shuts down as the computer logs off, rather than doing it automatically. Log off also takes ungodly amount of time. Neighbor says this is exactly how the problems started to present themselves before, which eventually caused the icons to be totally unaccesable.

Sorry this is so long but wanted to be thourough in my description. Any clues here folks? Could it be hardware related, perhaps low system resources (only 128 mgs ram currently) or even bad system ram? If hardware, how can I prove this to Gateway, as it is under warantee and would get them to fix it for free, of course.

Thanks for your time.

Jim

personally, if it is under warranty and there is a gateway store close, i would take it back, also, check the warranty that was purchased, my dell warranty is in home service, granted someone has to be home, but i would not beat my head against a wall when i could beat someone elses:D

Would take your suggestion to heart that I could, but unfortunately I live in an isolated island in ALaska. Not stores to take it too. I know Gateway if I call them, will say the patent answer, reload the system. Now I have done that once, and am not so sure that will fix our problems. If I could PROVE it was hardware, I can utilize my warantee and make them send me problem part etc.

hum, in my business, the squeaky wheel gets the oil:) id get a tech, and i use that term loosely, on the phone and wear him/her out until they authorize you to send it back to them, especially if it has been acting up since the get go. you have reloaded the os, id tell them you dont want to break any seals or whatever to void the warranty you just want what you paid for, what about the in home thing? do you have that?

Installing a firewall after being attacked by a hacker could be the equivalent of locking the doors after a burglar stole the key. However, any hacker worth his salt knows that after you take over a machine, you should take good care of it so it behaves when you come back... and it's owner is less likely to rebuild the system.

XP has some known issues with power management across the USB hubs. Disable it and see if that takes care of some of the shutdown issues. The jman has a very valid point about Gateway. It is their responsibility.