Help from all those more knowledgable on my laptop problems needed

[fresh2death]

i do not know where to start,
i have an acer aspire 5100 laptop and it has many problems,
i thought i would post on here hoping that someone could help me,
the main problem is it's absolutely slow speed to do anything,
it also crashes all the time when messenger is running,
itunes is extremely slow,
and the weirdest problem is that it sometimes gets this problem where certain parts of the screen turn an irrgeular pink colour,
if anyone could reccomend anything for me to do it would be great,
thanks

 

[ScOuT]

1. Get rid of all the crap (extra programs, extra files...all the stuff you don't need )

2. Manage your start up programs. Select only the programs that must start when you start windows. You mentioned itunes...when you install itunes it installs and runs many programs.
"Apple update service" is always running and slows it down.
"bonjour" is another junk apple itune program that installs itself and runs all the time.
"quick time" is always running in the back ground.
You need to really check what is running and why. If you need something open...all you have to do is just click it and it will run...don't start everything when you power up.

3. Run CCleaner...that will get rid of a bunch of crap guaranteed. Get rid of all the junk files windows keeps around.
http://www.ccleaner.com/download

4. Run windows disk cleanup...you'll get rid of more junk.

5. defrag your hard drive...let it run until complete.

6. Install more RAM...that will help every laptop perform better.