Sorry in advance if I posted this in the wrong category, but I'm having a problem that is both very strange and vaguely familiar at the same time.

Last year, I thought the hard drive on my desktop computer crashed; but thankfully it did not. So, I pulled it out to work on it. Anyway, it is up and running Windows XP, as it always had, but this is my problem:

I can connect to the Internet, and I stay connected for about five minutes, before the Internet freezes. I do not have IE on my computer, though it says that it does. Now, I can only go to Google or Yahoo, and I can type in the search bar. However, it keeps coming up with "Internet Explorer cannot open the search engine", no matter what I do or where I go.

I am also unable to open Command Prompt and Task Manager. Nor can I download a browser, spyware scanner, or virus scanner because of this.

The computer has only been online for two days. As soon as I got it online, it downloaded... something. The file name did not show up, and I cannot find anything, as I have no tools by which to search for problems.

Is it a virus?
Hardware failure?
IE problem?
What is it?
How can I fix it?

It is p[ossible you have a deep-rooted CoolWebSearch spyware infection. You can try this (http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFAQ.htm#ResetSearch) solution but format and reinstall may be your true final solution.