Hey, I hope this is the best place to ask but I've been having some real problems with my laptop. When I turn it on it looks okay until the desktop is fully up. Then the status bar turns white on the bottom and it tells me there's no internet connection. After a minute or two the status bar turns back to normal. I try to open up various things but they don't usually work and when they do they open with "not responding." I have Windows 7. The last big change I did to my computer was installing Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 on Christmas but this problem only turned up today.
How much memory does your laptop have? If it has 1GB or less, then insufficient memory may be it's problem. If it has 2GB or more, it sounds like something is consuming memory or hogging resources on startup. Try running Process Explorer to see what's running and how much memory+resources are being used.
^ That's the problem with this kind of problem. It could be any of several things. Low memory, a virus, malware, an extremely fragmented registry, maybe even a fragmented hard drive. I'm always cleaning the registry, running virus scans (never found any), running other utilities, making sure new apps aren't trying to run un-necessary crap in the background, etc. With Win7 x64 and 8GB of RAM, memory isn't an issue for me, but I keep an eye on things anyway.
If you still have this problem, goto majorgeeks.com, and start a thread in the 'Majorgeeks Welcome Center' forum briefly describing your problem. They'll ask you to post a more detailed description in one of the specific help forums where you'll be guided step by step through a diagnostic.
My money is still on a virus until you can complete a virus scan. Some of the malware out there does a pretty good job protecting itself against virus scanners. You might have to download Malwarebytes on another computer, copy it to a flash drive, rename the executable, and then run it from the flash drive on the target computer. Good luck!
^ I wonder if the OP has any virus protection already in place. I use ESET NOD32 and have never had a virus make it onto the computer. It's caught a few trying to get in from web pages though.