After months of use, suddenly PC exhibits

[Tash]

I have had this Vista system for 8 months. I have had Office XP (2002) installed the whole time. Then one day I see Outlook open on my desktop. I never use Outlook. Then later its starts multiplying. More and more instances of Outlook open - over 200 instances open at one time. I force it down. Eventually I uninstall Outlook to get a usable system. I thought maybe there was a virus. No virus detected. I pull out another hard drive. Format it, and install Vista on it. Then I install Office XP and Outlook opens again by itself.

Obviously, there is a hardware issue. I removed the wireless router, and substitute and different one. Same issue. I replace the network card on the PC. Still the same problem.

Anyone have a clue?

Eventually I
1) Formatted a hard drive
2) installed Windows 7 RC
3) with NOTHING else installed, when I try to browse the web I get messages saying 'mail client not properly installed' constantly, so I can't browse the web.

Then I downloaded Windows Live Mail client on another machine and brought it over to the Windows 7 machine on a USB thumb drive and installed it. And now it keeps staying open - I cannot close it. And it keeps the focus, so I can't do anything.
Update - Just tried disabling the network adaptors. So even without them, after I boot into Windows 7, the Windows Live Mail client stays open - cannot close it.

 

[Zstream]

Umm, legal version of Office? Install all office patches?

 

[Tash]

I added more info in first post.

 

[hiromizu]

Have you tried rebooting your computer? What did Microsoft say when you called them? Is your machine fully up to date and patched with the latest service packs and security updates? Bios updates? Firmware updates? driver updates? Any errors in the event log? Have you installed any software lately? Have you done an Office repair install? Have you called your ISP?

 

[Tash]

Maybe I should clarify because my post above is so hard to read.

Eventually I
1) Formatted a hard drive
2) installed Windows 7 RC
3) with NOTHING else installed, when I try to browse the web I get messages saying 'mail client not properly installed' constantly, so I can't browse the web.

 

[JackMDS]

Hmm.. RC suppose to be out on May 5.

 

[Tash]

That's Window 7 build 7100

 

[MerlinRML]

Do you have an "email" button on your keyboard? It might be stuck or malfunctioning.

 

[RebateMonger]

Have you tried a new keyboard yet?

 

[Tash]

Yes - you guys are geniuses. You can't imagine how much time I've wasted on this.

BTW, it solved another problem - I thought my motherboard was a goner.

When I was booting up, the DELL logo waiting for you to press f12 to go into the bios, was staying up as much as 2 to 3 minutes. This was also due to the stuck key.

So - mystery solved.