First some background: I purchased my latest computer (HP Pavilion Elite HPE-210y) in April 2010. From the beginning I found it was having problems when I was transferring data from CD's. I would access a CD and move information to the computer, and when I went back to the CD I would get a "The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable" message. This probably has no bearing on my current problem, but I thought I'd add it for reference.
Last Thursday (9 Dec 2010) I began noticing that the computer was having real problems. When I'd try to go online I'd get a message telling me that I had a connection problem, even though the box said I was connected. When I'd try to shut down or restart the computer it would go to the normal "shutting down" screen...and stay there. I have to cut power to shut off the computer. I tried running the anti-virus scans on Norton 2010, but when I clicked on the shortcut icon nothing would come up. I tried running the diagnostic programs and part way through the scans it would just hang. It said it was still scanning but never moved forward. I then tried to recover the system to an earlier date, but it said I had to disable the anti-virus program to continue, so I did. After I completed that maneuver I went to turn on the Norton protection and it wouldn't allow me to do it.
I went to the Norton site and replaced 2010 with 2011 to get protection up and running again but it still won't run a full system scan. I started a full system scan last night, to let it run overnight. When it started it went immediately to "89 items scanned". When I checked it this morning it was still at "89 items scanned".
If I work with the computer for any length of time Norton cannot be accessed. I have to shut off and restart the computer, and then immediately go to Norton in order to use it.
I know this was a bit long-winded, and I still feel like I've left out some critical information, but hopefully there is enough info for someone to walk me through this. I'm not very computer savvy, so if you can dumb down your advice I will be forever grateful!