Wierd not wonderful windows installation

[eternal_breath]

Ladies, gentlemen, and undecided....

I recently tried to reinstall Windows. Upon restarting - I had an impenetrable clue screen crash - and was forced to reformat. (this is why my windows install base lives on a partition totally isolated from everything else...)

I did a clean installation. now for some reason all sorts of wired changes have taken place, none of this happened before:

-I can't use the windows update site. It starts to scan for changes, then remains at 0%.

-My taskbar changes size on restart.

-MSN fails when it tries to sign in automatically.

-NFS 4: High Stakes doesn't work when I try to use hardware acceleration.

What might be going on?

Specs:

-P4 2Ghz on an ASUS P4S533/C
-1024Gb DDR333 RAM
-Seagate Barracuda, 40Gb drive + 80Gb drive
-VisionTek GeForce4 Ti4600 4x
-SB Live! Value 5.1 S.E.
-Windows XP pro
-Lite On 32x RW burner

 

[muzikool]

Does a mod want to move this to somewhere more helpful?

 

[gonaads]

Yeah... why not. Moved to APPS.

 

[GoNz0]

My taskbar changes size on restart.

Thats the video drivers, i noticed this flaw in the 29 series using GF4 as the main card in my new builds, the screen resolution cant make its mind up until you go HERE and update to the 41 series driver.

I can't use the windows update site. It starts to scan for changes, then remains at 0%.
&
MSN fails when it tries to sign in automatically.

Looks like this is related to your internet settings, or possibly the means you use to connect to the internet, try the connection wizzard on this 1.

how do you connect to the internet anyway ?