Try a scan with hijackthis to see if something afoul is running in the background. post findings in the hijackthis post and see if someone can see a problem. hope this helps
If os is installed you don't need to boot from cd just hard drive first. if os is not installed then you have to format new hard drive first then boot from cd first then hd,after install boot hd first. hope this helps.
Do you have two computers? If so both have to be running to use this.If one is off the other trys to search for it and hangs.saying network not found. hope this helps.
I had two problems like this,one was a bad memory chip.try different memory if you can,and the other was a bad power supply. hope this helps.The 0x000008e is a memory fault error. see if you can get two 512 mb chips that way if one is bad you still have the other.
Why pay money when there are free programs like, spybot-Adaware-microsofts antispyware, they have not let me down so far and if you do get some bad ones use hijackthis and post your scan and somebody well help you get ride of it. Hope this helps
Go to control panel,user accounts,then change the way users log on and off, then check mark the box that says use the welcome screen. that should do it.
Try using this program to see if you have any spyware running in the background. the program is -Hijack this- its free and small, when its done, post the findings here. http://www.hijackthis.de/en