ok, just to clarify. yeah, it is a 1700+, it was just bumped up to 1800+ speeds

but it's back to stock now, and I found out it wasn't the RAM. I got another stick at staples and tested that. so I now have 512mb (max my board will support, did i mention my mobo sucks?) interesting story, the first time i went to staples and picked up the memory, I brought it home and went to put it in the pc, only to notice that the box that was marked 133mhz contained ddr memory instead. not too bad, just kinda annoying, so i had to go back and get that fixed. i just changed the reboot at system failure thing, and will do another search for adware and such. I have spybot installed, but a second opinion doesn't hurt, so to speak.

thanks for the comments guys.
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My Machine (wip)
XP1800, 256Mb Ram, DVD, 52x CD-R, 40Gb HD, GeForce4 MX 420
Clear Cube
XP2000, 256Mb Ram, 32x CDR, 40Gb HD