Ok here's the deal:

My friend was having a major problem on his older computer so he gave it to me to fix. I first determind that it was spyware that was bogging down the CPU. He didn't care if I reformatted the drive and start over. That's what I did everything was fine and I even added an extra 128 mb of ram.

Now the computer runs fast, but now he can't install any software. A message that stats "Setup 32 has caused error in Kernal32.dll" blew my mind, because essentially the operating system should be running at a "New Computer" mind set.

Any clues?

Stats:

Duron Processor

192 Mb RAM

Windows ME

I tried searching the internet, but nothing seem to be similar to what I got

Windows ME seems to be the problem...

I'm think just to reinstall windows again, but the only reason why I hesitate is because there was nothing added beyond a anti-virus program

Maybe the ram you added isn't good or doesn't match well. Or it could be Win ME or that AV (let me guess - norton?)

The virus program is McAfee. The ram was accepted. Windows reports the increase

it could just be a bad install, it can happen, have you tried to re format it and install (me) back on? it can't hurt to try considering it's a clean wipe in the first place. good luck.

Thanks I'll give it another wipe. I was just checking to see if there was something obivious that I wasn't doing. If anyone else has some suggestions let me know.

Thanks

It loohs like the RAM. Before formatting again, get one stick out and try. Also try pushing RAM at max. latencies.

It may be a bad cluster on the HD too.

sounds to me you either have bad memory, memory mismatch, or WinME,

win me is the os that is evil, it is worthless, install windows 98se or windows2000, ,a duron can handle almost any os, but you will need a good 512 for xp..

It turned out that the AV was corrupt and prevented additional installations. I wipe the drive again reinstalled the OS and everything works fine now.