I'm back. I've brought a few problems with me.

I have a dell inspiron 1520, and I've recently made some improvements, so to speak.

1) Replaced screen (the other one was cracked)
2) Replaced keyboard
3) Upgraded my RAM from 1GB in only on slot, to 3GB in both (1GB in one, 2GB in the other)
4) After doing these things, I wiped my harddrive, and reinstalled all the necessary drivers and such.

Now, that brings me to the problem(s):

1) sometimes, randomly, it'll flash a blue screen that tells me my computer's crashing, and then turn off.
2) Won't warm boot at all. In order to restart it, i have to shut it down, and then turn it back on, cold boot.
3) When I turn it on, the visuals don't take up the whole screen, but just for the first part. There are black strips on the right and bottom of the screen, almost like the resolution changed during the first part of the boot. When Vista kicks in, it's completely normal. that's not a big issue, but it's kind of annoying.
4) I'll get random messages at times, saying things like 'Superfetch stopped working', 'Host Process for Windows stopped working', various parts of my anti-virus softare aren't working, things like that. all the time.
5) The final problem, is that i can't get into my Add/Remove Programs section of the control panel. When the icon is clicked on, the mouse scroller arrow has an hour glass for a split second, and then does absolutely nothing. Doesn't help to restart (as in (2)).

If anybody has any suggestions, it would be SOOO appreciated!! Thanks!

 

Can you run Dell Diagnostics to see if it comes up with anything. You can do this by either using your Resource CD, or by pushing F12 when the computer boots.

I know #3 happened to me before in vista, i think thats just the nature of the beast.

As to 4 and 5, I'd look into a driver issue. are all your drivers up to date?

 

Since you said you upgraded the memory, I'd run a mem test. Windows 7 has one built in (use the start menu search for "memory", or hit F8 while booting). The Dell diagnostics should also have one, or just burn a Memtest86+ disc.

Let it run as long as you can tolerate. Failing memory often will pass a short test.

 

This, my memory passed a short test. Dell diagnostics has a memory test it will run. but i'd follow up with both Windows' test and Memtest86+

 

Ok, so i've been running a lot of diagnostics on my computer. the memory tests all came back positive, and passed every single one of them. i did, however, come back with few errors on some SATA S/N tests, including the Confidence test, S.M.A.R.T. Long Self test, S.M.A.R.T. Short Self test, Read test, and Verify Test. All were under the 'Windows Blue Screen' item on the symptom tree portion of the diagnostics. Anyways, I wrote down all the codes, and blocks that failed, but have no idea what they mean. I might go do dell.com and try to speak with one of the IM customer service reps, but last time i tried that they wouldn't give me the time of day because my warranty was no longer valid. SOOO.... yeah. If anyone can decipher these, here they are.

Confidence Test:
00F0-1340
Msg - Block 232908799 failed
00F00-1340
Msg - Block 233909419 failed

S.M.A.R.T. Long Self Test:
00F0-075D
Msg - IDE Device failed

S.M.A.R.T. Short Self Test:
00F0-065D
Msg - IDE Device failed

Read Test:
00F0-0244
Msg - Block 108589951 Uncorrected Problem
00F0-0240
Msg - Block 232908799 Address marker not found
00F0-0240
Msg - Block 232909419 Address marker not found

Verify Test:
All the same problems as the Read Test, just with different different codes.

So, if anyone knows what these things mean, that'd be sweet!

 

Failing SMART almost certainly means the HD is failing.

Back up everything now and replace the drive. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1520/en/sm/hdd.htm#wp1180023

 

Awesome. Thanks for help! I'll start backing everything up, and then replace my hard drive. Thanks for the link to the instructions on how to do it, as well!!