i have a dell laptop. i got it at the beginning of 2003. since then it has had tons of viruses and now takes 20 mins to start up and will not let me use the internet full stop. does anybody know of a way of restoring it to how it was when i first brought it. i have looked at all of the disks i got with it and all they seem to do is add programs back on again. help!

Take another look at all of the disks. One disk should be Dell XP. Use this one to reinstall XP back to the pre-installed factory setting. i_XpUser

oh yeah i think there is actually i just thought that was for when you had put it back to normal and wanted to re install xp. if i insert that disk will it then put it back to the nice state it was in when i brought the stupid thing?

Yes it should. My suggestion is to first let Dell XP CD reformat the HD then do the XP reinstallation. By then your PC will be very vulnerable. You will need to enable FW and AV then go to Windows Update to download ALL security updates. If you neglect to do this, you will be hit with Sasser, Mblast, etc. i_XpUser

sorry what is fv and will i be able todownload updates if i dont have internet? bear with me because im female and i am the one who got it into this mess in the first place

It makes no difference if you're a female or male. Females are as smart or even more smarter than men anyway (hey don't start a debate please :-)) FW = Firewall AV = Anti-virus i_XpUser

ah right then now i do not know how to activate a firewall because i do not know what one is and the antivirus that came with the computer was norton and i hav never actually done anything to that myself it has just been there.