Need help with my laptop

[Malissav75]

I have been on a search for help for a few weeks. I stumbled across you sight and saw a glimmer of light! I have read threads for about an hour, in hopes to find something that might answer my question, but nothing that really hits it. So here goes my issue!

I have a Gateway T-series laptop, model W350A using OS Vista Home Premium 64-bit that is giving me fits. I didn't get any disks with this computer, and the Geek Squad coverage I had before expired.
I am having issues with all my software. Firefox not responding, jar file errors, windows errors when I shut down, Google Chrome has resolving host issues. No mater what program I download or install, something goes wacky with it. I do believe that its my laptop because I have a brand new Compaq that handles the same programs without issues.
So i wanted to restore this Gateway to factory settings. I tried to get my restore to work, but it tells me that there is not a good restore point. I can't figure out how to get this done. I have a partition that has everything stored, but I don't know how to access that. It says PC Angel, and there is an info folder that is locked.
When I boot my computer I have to options F10 and F2. When i select F10 for the boot menu, I get 3 options:
1. IDE CD: Optiarc DVD RW AD-756-3A(P
2. IDE 4: WDC WD2500BEVS-22USTO-(S)
3. PCI BEV: REALTEK BOOT AGENT
I don't know what any of this is, but I tried option 3 thinking I could boot from maybe my partition. It goes thru a few things and then tells me windows didn't shut down properly, restart windows and it counts down to load.
So I go with F2 for BIOS Settings. This gives me a few screens, nothing that I can access a system restore.
I have tried the F10 + Alt, and it does nothing. Just keeps loading windows. I can get on the internet, and do a few things here and there. Nothing with great speed and without something crashing. So if you can direct me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. I did download and burn the 64-bit disk that was recommended. I didn't use it because I didn't think that I had boot issues. Thanks for any help and ideas!

[Terry60]

http://support.gateway.com/s/softwar...418su531.shtml

[Malissav75]

Thank you for the direction to the page. I wasn't able to find anything at Gateway with that information. However, I followed the instructions and there isn't an option like it says in step 5. Everything is the same as the picture, but not the first one that says repair your computer.
I do know that there are things in the partition because under my computer, the D: drive says there is 4.16GB free of 11.2GB.
Any other ideas before I send it off to a computer guy? Thanks for the help!