Mom's Computer Problems

It's Windows 98se on a box built by a local computer service store. It
has been a great computer for a while now. 733 Intel PIII, 32 k
primary memory cache, 256 k secondary memory cache. Board: First
International Computer, Inc. FA11 PCB 1.x, bus clock 133 MHz, Bios
award software international inc 6.00 PG 07/04/2000. 128 MB RAM, 9.98
gigs usable hdd capacity, 7.49 gigs free hdd space, Generic IDE hard
disk drive No SMART Driver. NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro,
Relisys 786 monitor 15.2 vis, s/n, C891180674, August 1999. VIA Tech
3038 PCI to USB Universal Host controller, Kingston EtheRx KNE20 Plug
and PLay ISA Adapter, Benq S2W 5300U scanner, and I think the mouse is
an intellipoint laser mouse, comes with mouse software.

Need any other info, let me know. Thoughts, ideas?

Sounds like a decent enough system. Never heard of the motherboard
mfr, though. And I forgot to ask a basic question - did all the
symptoms happen at once, or did some of these appear first, then
others, and she didn't want to bother you - so didn't report them
individually? Could be more than one problem.

Does she use dial-up, or does she have a broadband internet
connection?  Either way, disconnect the physical connection (phone
line or Ethernet cable).
My plan of attack would be to see if it's a software/virus problem,
then troubleshoot the hardware:

1) Boot up the computer.  Hold down at the same time the Ctrl + Alt +
Delete keys.  This will bring up a window that shows the running
programs. Is there anything unexpected there?  If you don't recognize
any of them, provide a list and I might be able to give some ideas.
Clear out any obvious garbage from the hard drive by running Disk
Cleanup (Start -> programs -> accessories -> System tools -> disk
cleanup)

2) Download, install, and run Adaware and Spybot Search and destroy
(personal editions are free, and a good idea even adware/spyware is
not the cause of her problems).  You'll also want to run an antivirus,
like Grisoft AVG or McAfee.  And (due to a mental lapse I forgot to
mention this earlier) install a software firewall (her router, if she
has broadband, may have its own firewall, be sure it is set up).
ZoneAlarm offers a free personal edition firewall.
I suspect this might help with the mouse freezing and slowness
problem.

3) You might want to do 4 first and troubleshood the hardware, as this
might be time-consuming.  if #1 and 2 don't solve some of your
problems, you may want to reinstall Windows. You'll want to make sure
you have the install CDs and any required key codes for all her
applications (and Windows!)

4) See if Windows is detecting any problems with the video card.  I
think with Win 98, it's: Start -> settings -> control panel -> system.
 Click on the Device Manager tab, select "view devices by type" and
look for your TNT video card (look both in "display devices" - you may
need to click on the + sign to expand it). Click on your card, and
click on "properties" at the bottom of the screen. In the middle of
the new window, there should be something that says "device status"
which should show "this device is working properly". Go back to the
Device Manager by clicking OK, and check "monitors" and "system
devices".  Pretty much anything time you see a yellow question mark
and/or yellow circle with an exclamation mark points to a problem.

5) If you have a monitor, lug it over to your mom's and attach your
monitor to here computer.  If the problem shows on your monitor, too,
you know the problem is with the computer and not her monitor.  That
odd coloring thing could be a number of things. If the problem goes
away, get her a new moni