Here's some websites that can help you to diagnose and repair your own issues. If you're still stuck, you can always contact me!

Be aware, however, that whenever you start messing around with the computer, you should know what you're doing - it's not hard to screw it up, especially if you start changing files or editing the registry. If you don't know what the registry is, think twice about messing with it.

Windows Update - It's really a necessity to keep up on your windows updates - newer operating systems, like XP, can be setup to do this automatically. Requires Internet Explorer (not a surprise).

Computing.Net - a bit heavy on the advertisement, but you can often find others with the same problem, and potential fixes.

Experts-Exchange.com - has pop-under advertising (blech) but you can often find a solution for your problem. Chances are someone's been thru it before. You can even post a question and pay someone to answer it (but you'd rather call me, right?)

Google.com - I know, Google? Believe it or not, Google can often lead you to the answer - I'll never forget I was working late at a client, upgrading the hard drive of a critical system that could not be shutdown during the day, and ideally be back up ASAP. Although I got the upgrade done, I got a strange error on boot. The machine would not stay running. A search on google with the error message pointed me to the solution.