Running XP, but computer is the problem

[mark]

Week and a half ago HD did the click of death. Lost a little info but nothing important. Got a new HD, Maxtor 120 GB, 7200 rpm and installed it and installed XP Home. The install of XP Home was off original disk, no SP1, no other progs and one visit to msfn.

Weird behavior started but thought it was just due to using a new HD and XP with nothing updated in it. I wanted my system a little more secure and installed an XP CD with SP2 slipstreamed. Weird behavior continued. Hmmm. Installed nLited XPSP2 and progs. Each install was on a deleted and reformated HD.

Problems: (1) Sometimes the text indicator (marker where you are about to type next) would suddenly go ballistic and start automatically inserting spaces or 3's or whatever, nonstop unless I hit the back key which is the only thing so far to stop it. (2)Beeping. Sometimes I would get an occasional beep. Other times the computer would freeze and have a continuous beep and then the problem quit, and sometimes the computer would freeze, beep continuously and then the computer would shut down. (3) Programs spontaniously open and most seem to have been programs that I had open recently. Or I would get a multitude of the same program opening (Text editor to be specific on more than one occasion). (4) Keyboard or mouse functions spontaniously activating, e.g. highlighting text, opening web page as mouse passes over hyperlink, Alt 'x' functions etc. (5) ZoneAlarm is not always recalling previous settings (after each boot, it might ask if it's ok for IE to access the internet) and I am sure there are other oddities I am not recalling at the moment.

Googled the heck out of the problem. I see some very slight matches but they refer to specific virii ( sp?, that word is just to weird on its own ) or Windows glitches and I have run several progs to detect for umpteen things. Run progs to check ram chips, defrag, checkdisk, Spybot, Ad-Aware and on and on. Nada, nothing, zilch.

<shudder> Checked BIOS and it is dated 2001 and there is a newer version dated 2002. <shudder> Could it be that the BIOS is just not handling the new HD? I have read the manual on the HD and it says there could be a problem with HD's over 137 GB.

But outside of that, all is great!!

[LoneWolf121188]

try the bios update, and seeing as how you just got the drirve with no info on it, reformat. Install the XPSP2 first. also, go to the maxtor website and dl powermax and make sure the drive is OK

[mark]

@Lonewolf

Thank you for the powermax suggestion and I figured the BIOS flash was probably going to be the next inevitable thing.

[mark]

Well, BIOS is flashed, used MaxBlast3 to do a low level full format of HDD's (3 hours), did memory scan and all was well, contacted keyboard manufacturer about the keyboard and they replied within 2 days!!! and the conversation with them is just starting but I doubt the keyboard is the problem. Windows identified it as an 84 key model when it is in reality a 126 key model and the weird thing is that all the keys function the way they are supposed to, well not completely sure. What the heck is an 'Fn' button for? ( I'll google it)

I'm down to thinking there must be a bad contact somewhere or the MOBO is fritzing.

4th OS install and it's starting to wear a little thin. (Wouldn't be any fun at all if I didn't get to use nLite at the same time)

Thanks for any help.