[Saint_D]

22 programs is high, but not excessive. Everyone who writes a program thinks they need to have something run at startup. You can start->run "msconfig" to see what all is in your startup folder. Viruses and malware often hide from this list... At least you can uncheck the things you know you don't care about. You may have to google the program names.

Microsoft's new free beta anti-spyware is good, and will give you even more protection if you run it as well. The other advice here is good too.

I don't know how haywire your system is, but check your disk space. XP likes to have 20%+ free space on the C:. Another explanation is hardware. You may just be overheating, or about to blow a RAM chip. Make sure all the fans are still running. They jam up with crud, or just die sometimes.

Oh, and I HATE all the HP crap. They can't write software for ****.

Good luck.