Reinstalled XP and problems

[Redonmyhead]

I reinstalled windows on my gateway 2002 tower. Reason why is b/c it was running slow(had to many useless apps) and I figured a clean installation would do wonders for it. I used my gateway WinXP Operating System start-up disk to reinstall XP. Format it to NTFS. Filled out the correction information. After the XP download, I started on my drivers with the drivers disk provided by gateway. Next was the manual installation of the applications that gateway provided on cds. Then my nvidia driver, and the printer driver cd. Each download, I followed up with a rebooted to the computer. I started to download a couple old files onto the computer from my back-up CD like spybot, adware, etc. (just a few apps) and then rebooted. Before I started to install those apps on my computer, my computer would lock up. I would have several window screens up and all the sudden my computer would lock up. I would tried to bring up my Windows task manager to close those screens by ending those tasks but my task manager would not even appear after hitting ctrl+alt+delete. So I would turn the power off. After turning the power on, I started to download those apps I mentioned.

Everything was working fine. After I downloaded those apps, I started the windows update. When I started the windows update, it would lock up when installing those windows update files. My taskmanager would not show up at all when hitting ctrl+alt+delete. So I would turn off my computer and start it up. I started to download the files from the windows update since my Win XP disk did not have the service pack 1 or 2. Everything was working fine until the service pack 2. I had the whole file downloaded. Now I was installing the files to my computer. Half way in the installation, my computer locks up. Taskmanager would not work again. Then I get a popup window. I forgot to write it down but I did remember some parts to the window screen. It said 16 Bit DOS on the window screen and stated "mstaskmgr.exe" error or something. Is something wrong with my bios?

I had to turn off my computer. When I turned the computer on, that screwed everything up and so I started to reinstall Windows XP again. Same scenario as the last time. Before I even started to download the Windows Updates, several applications would lock up. Windows taskmanager would not even show up and I would have to turn the power off. I would get the 16 bit DOS mstskmgr.exe error message again. Prior to the lockups, I could bring up Windows task manager without any problem. My intel processor is 2.26 ghz with 512 Ram. I never had any problems with my computer before I reinstall XP. I never updated my drivers expect NVidia ever since I had the computer in 2002.

Could my Bios be corrupted? Any suggestions are appreciated. I'm a computer noob. So be gentle.

Thanks for the open ears and suggestions,
Red

 

[Redonmyhead]

would my bios have anything to do with this problem?

 

[Redonmyhead]

Here is that error message that I get when my computer locks up. When the computer locks up, the message appears within a few minutes.
The title on the window pop screen is "16 Bit MS-DOS Subsystem". The message below it states, "C:\mstskmgr.exe The NTVDM CPU has encounter an illegal instruction. CS:0524 IP:0516 OP:63 65 6e 74 65 Choose 'close' to terminate the application." If I close it, it closes. If I hit ignore, the next message states :the system cannot open COM3 port requested by application. choose close to terminate". Yes, I've downloaded the latest drivers but not for my harddrive.