[garasaki]

What kind of processor do you have??

If it's a P4, it could be heat related issues.

Most likely though, reformatting and reinstalling would solve your problems.

EDIT: oh yeah, by the way, Having 512 megs of ram and a 1500 meg swap file is pointless. You'll never use it all. And too big of a swap file is inefficient. I'd reduce yours to 750 or less. You wont see a huge improvement or anything though (either way)...increasing the swap file only provides signifigant performance improvements if you have both a small amount of ram (<64mg) and a really full hard drive.

PS...if you decide on a new comp, I'd love to build ya one!