Multiple Errors Have A Single Cause Or Solution?

In 2001 I purchased a Compact Presario with Windows XP Home Edition. I have slow dialup with MSN 9 as my browser and provider.Over the last few months, my PC has developed the following problems. They seem to have gotten worse when I was forced to upgrade from MSN 6 to MSN 9 last August.

1. About 70% of the time after signing in, I get a dialogue box that reads " Microsoft has encountered a problem and needs to close." I eventually log on after an attempt or two.

2. Pages sometimes freeze for up to 15-20 minutes before a new page finally opens up.

3. About once a week, I get the smaller bubble that reads that I am running low on virtual memory.

4. Pages do not usually close when clicking on the "X" in the left corner.


I recently signed into www.double my speed.com for a scan. The scan detected 837 errors of various sorts.I spent nearly three hours speaking to one of their techs from India who took over my computer ostensibly to diagnose the problem. He eventually determined that the $40 annual "fix it" option would not work because I have " very, very bad things" on my computer that needed my immediate attention. He showed me the page with all my errors, and took me to google which explains them. He said I was a victim of hacking. He took me to a page where I was going to get immediate help. Of course, all this help was going to cost $250 for the package. I hung up and disconnected.I am very un savvy when it comes to computers, but I seriously doubt I need to spend $250 to take care of these problems.I would greatly appreciate the simplest and/or least expensive way to get rid of these problems.I should add that my Norton anti-virus only detects low risk tracking cookies every week, and nothing else.I performed a sweep of these cookies today and got rid of them , but this did not speed things up or eliminate errors.