Odd computer problem

Ok, so I have a weird computer problem that I'm hoping someone can give me some insight on.

I have a computer that's a couple of years old.  It runs fine for the most part, and 98% of what I do on it is use powertab, a word processor, and surf the internet, so we're not talking a heavily driven machine.  I run Comcast high speed internet with a cable modem.

A couple of days ago I decided to finally update my prehistoric ZoneAlarm firewall which had been bugging me for forever.  After installing the upgrade and rebooting, my system would load up the desktop, but none of my startup files would load, and I couldn't run any application.  Not even the dumb little calculator.  My mouse moved, and the start menu would open but nothing.  I couldn't even get safe mode to boot up.  That wouldn't even make it to the desktop

I figured that the upgraded ZoneAlarm was probably using more memory than my computer could handle, so after what was way more work than it should have been, I finally removed ZoneAlarm from the startup sequence through msconfig.  My computer then booted up as normal.  However, what happens is once I connect to the internet, I've got about ten minutes before my connection goes kaput.  It's not losing it through hardware as I've played the disconnect reconnect game.  Once I reboot the computer, I get another ten minutes.  Reboot, more minutes.  Each time, the connection disappears after about ten minutes.

So my reasoning is that there is something in my startup files that is taking forever to load, and once it does load, interferes with my Internet connection.  I've tried uninstalling ZoneAlarm since that's the only thing that's changed, and most likely what's causing the problem, but the uninstall program is fried.  I tried manually deleting it from the system, which I'm loathe to do, but most of the files are denied access, which leads me to believe somehow, this god damn program is running, even though it's not in the task manager or in my startup file. 

Check to see if any where on your computer there is a picture of an Apple with a bite taken out of it, it should be glowing somewhere on the thing.  If you don't see that anywhere then that is more than likely your problem.  (I am so kidding but I couldn't resist the joke even at risk of the flack I'm going to get for this comment.  To save everyone the trouble, I know macs have problems just as PC's do.  It was merely a joke so relax.)  

Sorry Neil I promise not to respond to anyone who wants to tell me how dumb I am as not to hijack your serious thread.

Best of luck man, as not to seem totally insensitive and giving no advice, try updating your drivers with your 10 minutes.

I hate to say this but I would ask Ron for help

 Go to Start > MyComputer > Right click > Properties > find the box labelled "Retarded" and uncheck it. lol   By the time you figure out the problem (my guess is registry error) you could have reinstalled windows, fully updated, and installed those programs you mentioned, GOD FORBID you install Zonealarm again..,.

Yeah, as Thor mentioned, I would be willing to bet you have something from Zonealarm still hanging around in your registry and it's making shit fucked up.

You could try to remove it, but if you are not familiar with the registry, I wouldn't recommend bothering as the registry is where you can REALLY fuck shit up and it won't warn you either. Back up everything worth saving before you attempt anything like this...

But before reinstalling Windows altogether, it might be worth your trouble to download something like AVG Antivirus (by a company called Grisoft) and see if maybe you have picked something up. AVG will find it if it's there and is pretty good about getting rid of them too. I would also run Spybot. If those don't find anything out of the ordinary, go for the reinstall: your computer will run twice as good as it does now.

Well, before going with the whole reload windows option, which is a last resort option, there are a couple of programs you can try to clean it up.

First, try WINPATROL. This program will show you all your startup programs, IE helpers, scheduled tasks, & whatnot. It's a pretty handy little program and is a good way to find what is really running on your machine. It's easy to use, and I find it handy to keep my machine clean of crap.

If you can't find the program that is running with this program, you can try HIJACKTHIS to look at your registry. This program takes a little more research to use because you can fuck up your machine if you remove the wrong registry keys. However, I know you are resourceful Neil, and a little google searching can help you clean up a lot of the registry entries that you don't need.

Both of these programs can be found at download.com

Goodluck!

 AVG is a GREAT program, and free, too! Unfortunately, it tends to display alot of "false positives" so if you get any hits, try scanning the suspect files with Clamwin before deleting. If Clamwin shows it as a positive, then delete that file with malice.

I concur that it's probably a registry error that's hijacking your start up. Something might have gotten corrupted in the uninstall.

Seems like a sensible starting place anyway.

For a free Firewall, I've been using Sygate Personal Firewall for years. I've got no complaints with it and my few years old Dell rig is perfectly fine with it.

(And seriously Todd, once again, please spare us your Mac fan boy crap. You use a Mac, great. Just don't be that smug pompous iTard guy anytime a computer related thread pops up. M'kay?)

Could running something like CCleaner's registry cleaner take care of those lingering registry entries?  I've never tried using it to correct a problem this serious, but it might be worth a shot.

Try googling CCleaner and download the lastest version.

Is there anyway to ban Todd from any computer-related threads in the future.  It's analogous to me jumping into all the football threads trying to tell everyone how it is.  Seriously dude, go with your strengths...whatever those might be.

Nick:

Seriously dude, go with your strengths...whatever those might be.

 Filthy!

Nick:

Is there anyway to ban Todd from any computer-related threads in the future.  It's analogous to me jumping into all the football threads trying to tell everyone how it is. 

It's more like going into the Football thread to tell everyone that in the rest of the world "Football" refers to soccer and then wasting everybody's time with how wonderful you find soccer compared to that barbaric American sport of "Football"

 I will never recommend registry manipulation to a novice, but if you feel you must, just look for those entries associated with that lame firewall and good luck to you. Sygate is a turd, big memory hog and fairly worthless. Still better than Norton (paid version) though lol!

Nick:

Is there anyway to ban Todd from any computer-related threads in the future.  It's analogous to me jumping into all the football threads trying to tell everyone how it is.  Seriously dude, go with your strengths...whatever those might be.

 8 days ago, Toddah.  My memory isn't that great.  Yours is just really, really poor.