dell laptop very slow

ok so i was directed to come here and post my problem with my laptop so here i am. ok its a dell inspiron 8100 with windows xp. its also a 2001edition. the bottom of the laptop says its supposed to have windows home edition. i dont know if that makes a difference. it runs really slow. every once in awhile it shuts down and reboots all by itself and runs a systems check. i try to play a game off or on the internet and it will shut down and reboot. there is no warning at all. it will let me play hoyle card games for about 5 minutes and then bam its gone and the laptop is rebooting. when i go to the internet it takes about 3-5 minutes to fully show for example yahoo. and then it slow when i click on something. and then again takes another 5 minutes or so to finish doing whatever it needs to do.then most of the time it wont respond or it takes forever. i guess what the tech says i need to do is restore factory settings and so i want to know how to do that. i have system restore but i didnt see factory restore. my laptop wasnt originally mine. it was given to my sister which then she gave to me cause i needed one.ok so please, please, someone help me or tell me what i can do. do i need to go buy a totally new windows and wipe out my laptop or what do i do?

Edited to remove HJT log and add as attachment: [attachment removed]

Who was it that directed you to come here?

Was the computer fine when you first got it, or has it always been like this?

From the sound of it, your computer may be infected with a virus or other malware. Please go to the Infections Removal Forum and post your HTJ Log there. A trained volunteer will post in your topic and give you step by step instructions on how to clean your computer of anything malicious. Once your computer is cleaned, then if the problem remains, you can come back here and we'll give you some more help.

who sent me here was noviciate from the malware team i guess. it was running slow when my sister got it in august 08. and i got it in february 09 and its been this slow. but my uncle had put a green memory stick with little black squares on it inside the laptop and it seemed to speed it up a little but was still doing the same thing. i will go and try and run a virus scan. thank you. i think that i should mention that the little fans in the back of the laptop dont really come on. if they do come on its only for about 30 sec. and then shut off. i have a fan that s made for laptops that it does sit on but the whole time ive had the dell theyve only come on 5 times and for 30 sec intervals. i dont know if that means anything but i thought i would mention it anyway.

From your first malware thread, Noviciate suggested you do a Factory Restore after backing up your data. Reading your post there, I agree this would definitely be the best thing to do. You said you have a Dell Inspiron laptop, but you did not say what model it is. I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 and it has a hidden recovery partition that will restore the system to it's factory new state. It's quite probable that yours does as well, but I need the model number so I can check the Users Guide to be sure. On mine, this is how you use it: [attachment removed] Be sure to backup any data first as it will all be deleted by the recovery process.

ok so my laptop is a dell inspiron 8100. its a 2001 and its been messed with files deleted and added. i dont know whats what and well like i said its running windows xp professional edition and the underneith says its supposed to have windows home edition. does that really matter or is it the same? i dont know. i dont have any disks to redo much on it and i want to make sure that nothing goes wrong with it.thank you

Ouch. According to the manual for the 8100, it came with Windows 2000 originally (or even Windows ME), not any flavor of XP. To verify this, go to

http://support.dell.com

Click on Drivers and Downloads then click on Chose by Service Tag. Enter the Service tag of the laptop (should be on the bottom). On the next page, on the right, there will be a link called System Configuration Information, click on that to see the configuration as it was shipped from the factory, including the Operating System it came with.

If it did ship with XP Home (or Pro) as an upgrade, then you may be able to order the recovery CD from Dell for a lot less than you can buy a copy of XP Home or Pro for and it will also have the right device drivers. You will have to contact them though as I can't find any link on their web site for the 8100 replacement CD.

You would have to install SP3 and all updates once the recovery CD was loaded.

Also, any of your data will be lost so please back it up first.

One thing you can try before doing this, is to borrow a copy of Windows XP Pro from a friend so you can run System File Checker (SFC).

To use System File Checker, you need a XP CD at the same service pack level as the XP installed on your hard drive.

Click on Start then Run, type sfc /scannow and press Enter or click GO.

SFC will check that all required XP files are in place and not corrupted. Any missing or damaged will be replaced from the CD. You don't get any good feedback when it runs, it just prompts you to put the CD in then does it's thing and goes away when it finishes.

ok so i guess i will just leave it the way it is right now cuz i dont know anybody with win. xp pro. so it will have to wait for now. thank you very much. i now know what the problem is. i just got another computer and i will just use the laptop for games or whatever. its not any good for the internet anymore. so thank you very much for all your help. its greatly appreciated. i learned something new today. i have to tell you though it is very frustrating to go though all that and find out that its supposed to have something different. information is beautiful.