I'm clueless. Startup problem in XP

[Nebor]

Alright, out of nowhere tonight, around 12:15, I went from having a fully functional computer to having one busted ass computer. I was playing CS: Source. I exit, chat on AIM with a friend. Go to open internet explorer. It doesn't open. In fact, no explorer programs will open, like My Computer or control panel, etc. Wierd. So restart. Windows boots up fine, I select my profile. All my startup crap loads, but after it's done, by little HD light stays on, and I can hear the HD getting constantly hit. I can't open any explorer type programs still. And things seems sluggish. I haven't tried playing a game or anything. So I open up the Task Manager. Things are down at idle, 5% CPU usage or so.

I can see a list of the things I've tried to start, like iexplorer and whatnot in the process list. I also note that my Available Memory is constantly dropping and my System Cache is growing. The rate is around 1 MB every 3 seconds or so. I boot into safe mode and do a system restore to yesterday morning. Computer restarts in regular mode and hangs. Open up Task Manager, System Restore is not responding. Fvck me... So I end that task, and things start up, and they're still screwed.

I have no idea what the deal is or what I should do.

Cliff notes:
No explorer programs work
Hard drive light stays on
Available memory drops while System Cache rises
Computer is fvcked.

Help me, please! I just want to play CS: Source. I bought it yesterday and it's the first game I've played in forever. I'm afraid I'm going to have to format.

 

[eydolic]

I'd say that it is probably hardware causing the system to behave strangely since the System Restore did not work properly. Make sure that all of your RAM is showing up in the BIOS, and run memtest86+ on it. The power supply can also cause strange problems like that. What hardware do you have? If you're overclocking, make sure that your system is cool enough and that the voltages are stable and SUFFICIENT.

 

[Nebor]

Nothing overclocked. Fans are all at max, temps are decent...

I just don't see why it would all of a sudden have a strange failure like this. I booted it into safe mode with networking and it's churning away on a virus scan in there.

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

Crap..I wish I could help. I haven't ran into that problem before. What's your system specs? Also, even if you have to format, it doesn't take long to download the files for Steam and Source. Don't threat

 

[eydolic]

What hardware do you have?

make sure that your system is cool enough and that the voltages are stable and SUFFICIENT.

(From my last post.)

Maybe I could help you more if I knew what you have.

 

[Nebor]

I ran system restore again and everything is hunky dory.

For the record, I'm going to blame Steam, since it just seems like a computer wrecking POS.

I guess I just don't get computers...

 

[eydolic]

Steam was a waste of my time back when I had it. It never caused me stability problems, though. (Well, I guess the occasional hang while playing TFC)