desperate teacher-please check HJT

[ngolden]

Thanks for all your support. I've now done everything you suggested, but to no avail.
I'm also unable to update my system, either through the automatic update feature, or by going to the site and trying -- it just hangs.
I also noticed that when I go to the Add/Remove button in the control panel, there's a long list of security updates. But they don't seem to appear in name only -- no size.
DOes this give any insight?

Any suggestions for a new computer?

[jholland1964]

How old is this computer? How much RAM is installed? How large is the hard drive?
If you don't know then Right Click My Computer. That first page you see will tell you how much RAM is installed. Close that, double click My Computer, then Right Click "C" drive and choose Properties. THis will tell you how big the drive is and how much free space is remaining.
Have you ALWAYS had this problem?
One thing you don't have installed is XP Service Pack 2. This may have an affect on what is happening...not sure really.
I know you said that auto update didn't work either...these past two days I have been working on a friend's computer. Had to reformat and reload XP SP1 and install SP2. I had the same experience with the Windows Update page that you did. It would just sit and scan for updates...supposedly, and then IE would freeze. Finally I decided to try to schedule and automatic update and set it to check for and update 30 minutes later. It worked but only downloaded 1 update. So I did it again, another 30 minutes later and that time there were 54 updates! They all downloaded and installed without trouble. I never went to the update page, just told it to check for updates in 30 minutes. You might try that and see if it works. Also try disabling the firewall for that 30 minute period too...I also did that. So I don't know whether the firewall was blocking the updates or what. But it did work.
Have you defragged your system lately? If you have a lot of fragmented files this can cause slow downs. There are also some services in XP which are set to automatic start, which are unnecessary for most systems that can slow a system down too. If you want those I can list those later.
Judy
P.S. Just to throw this in for thought...I have found that on "some" computers the "total package" security suites are just too much for one computer to handle. When users switched to stand alone anti-virus products, firewalls and anti-spyware programs there computer performance went way up. Now don't get me wrong, the eTrust Internet Security Suite is an excellent program and gets good reviews but it may be that it is just too much for your system. You might consider uninstalling it and trying out a good free anti-virus program, a free firewall and some of the super free anti-spy programs that PP mentions in his Sticky
and see if this makes a difference. Bear in mind that if you do decide to do this you should UNINSTALL the eTrust Internet Security Suite while you try these others out.