pc keeps crashing

[georgeous]

please can anyone help me.
My machine is only about a year old, and I'm running windows ME
The problem is, everytime i turn it on and try to load a program, any
program, my whole system freezes up, and won't work.
If i do ctrl alt delete, I get a box popping up saying that the program is
not responding. I can't cancel the program, it won't let me. Instead the
whole screen goes black and I have to unplug the darn thing and start over
again.

Originally I thought it was because I was running too many programs in my
start up. So I ran msconfig.exe, and stopped all the programs that I didn't
need when starting up.
But this hasn't fixed the problem.

I've run Scandisk, and it can't find any errors.
It feels like my pc is running programs in the background cos my hard drive light is always flashing - even when i'm not doing anything

What can i do? any help will be greatly appreciated

thanks

 

[xkjdhdg]

Try scanning for viruses and go download this
program to clean all of the ad-ware off of you machine. Just rememeber when you kill the ads the software will not WORK!!
here is the link it is FREE

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7423,00.asp

 

[georgeous]

okay I started it in bootlog mode, and it turns out I have a system error and I need to reinstall windows.
If i do this, will I lose everything on my hard drive -e.g all my documents and things and all my software, or will it just write over my c:\windows directory?

 

[xkjdhdg]

Can you boot using Safe Mode? If so try a restore first. Please read the Windows ME FAQ
reformatting and re-installing Windows ME.
You can also try booting with a boot disk and select mini root. At C:\ type SCANREG /RESTORE.
To answer your question yes you can reload and should not lose your documents BUT I would try to boot up and backup those files first. If they are in the C:\ directories YOU WILL LOSE THEN!!