Originally Posted by
UNICRONICUS
1 & 2. If you have the original Windows installation CD just format and re-install with this. Make sure you make a backup of all of your files/folders before wiping though as you will lose everything when you perform a full format of your hard drive! If you format and re-install windows this will more or less guarantee that the virus has been destroyed. Make sure you have all of the drivers for your computer when re-installing Windows, do you have the original driver disk that came with your computer? If not, go to the Dell website and download the drivers from here and stick them on a USB stick or something so you can install them later.
3. You hit the nail on the head with that upgrade, install the maximum amount of ram that your board can handle (2GB), just go to Crucial for this. Please bear in mind though that you will be looking at around £50 for DDR memory as it is pretty rare and expensive nowadays compared to the normal DDR2 that most people have. Other than that you are pretty bummed... You could try finding the best possible P4 processor for your motherboard but you might already have the best one available. What do you want your machine to do? If you want it for a gaming machine then just buy a new computer because that spec won't play a lot of modern games! Dell's have always been very limited when it comes to upgrading them so you're best off buying or even building a new machine to benefit from upgrades.