I wrote not long ago about my old computer, which died because its motherboard gave up.

Now I'm using the spare laptop, which has seen light use over the years and is pretty up-to-date.

The thing is that nowadays it's often just not doing things I want it to do. I can't open my internet security. It does scheduled weekly scans, and I can change the settings of the firewall and the security, but I just cannot open the program. If I do, no window opens but it's one of those windows which need the 'End task now' button pressing when shutting down.

I'm not able to use Yahoo Messenger either. I wanted to upgrade it a month ago and downloaded the newest edition from Yahoo - and it wouldn't install. I got the program on my desktop, but it wouldn't run whatever method I tried. So I deleted it and deleted my Messenger and decided it would work if I installed a fresh install. It still doesn't work, and now I have no Messenger at all. Not that I could use it - it didn't log in, though in the past it did and I hadn't changed anything (and the password & username is valid because I use it as an email address).

I also can't upgrade a Java update the computer has insisted I need, for over a month. I click on it and it says 'downloading updates... 0%' and then that's the last I see of it and it pops up to remind me every time I turn on the computer.

Other than that... everything works ok

A guy my dad knows at work recommends I back up my system and completely un-install it... this sounds a bit extreme... but does anybody else think it's necessary, too? Is there anything I can do to solve the problem? Before anybody asks, I have an internet security suite with enabled firewall, AVG which scans automatically every day, and Spybot search & destroy. Though I know these rarely detect problems on the laptop, but it has always been protected.