Ok, so I reinstalled last night using the Compaq QuickRestore CD that came with the machine (my computer was barely usable last night). For some reason, it seems to have just installed a bare-bones Wndows XP, instead of loading it with all the Compaq bundled software. This is fine, and not a big issue, but on the first few boots, the mouse/clicking was acting funny. Clicking on the Start button would hang for a long time, or double-clicking an icon on the desktop would yield no result. Eventually, it opened things. I rebooted, and then it seemed to work fine. I noticed on startup that there was a box that I'd never seen before, something about reseal, audit, and doing these things after I tested/installed the software. Does anyone know why I'm having these little isues?
