Sony laptop with multiple problems

My Sony laptop came with Me. I have multiple problems -Kernel32.dll, outlook express crashes everytime I open it, Norton 2004 wouldn't update, so I replaced it with 2005 and it won't load. I have either the iexplore problem or the Lexplore worm. It gives me out of memory alerts, so I added more memory. No help. I can't find any of the files they say should be present if you have the Lexplore worm. I have run Norton from the web and it finds nothing. I ran another virus program from the web and it found nothing. It freezes to the extent that control/alt/delete won't work. I have to remove the battery and unplug it to restart. Sometimes I have to do it twice.

I intended to update to XP this weekend, but Sony says you can't update the bios if you have added memory. It also says you have to update the bios to update to XP. I backed up all my files to do that, but Sony puts the fear of God into you in their instructions if you do anything wrong.

Right now, I am trying to find spyware. Adaware found something called alexis and something like clara. Hijack this returned many entries, but I have no clue which to delete.

I thought about just reinstalling Me. Some say that that the iexplore problem may require reinstalling the whole system.

I'm totally worn out and don't know what to do next. As far as I can tell, nothing has changed.

HELP!!

Bkay