I always recommend a clean installation of Windows, free of any Gateway (Acer) crap.
Any specific drivers which may be needed such as the
Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver (used to be called Intel Storage Matrix Driver), the
ATI Catalyst Driver or the RealTek HD Audio driver you can download from the specific driver manufacturer and install manually.
Windows Update can and will take care of the rest.
As for the Creative X-Fi MB software, I don't bother with that package as it really isn't worth it and it's nothing more than an OEM software solution.
As for problems with your video card, it could have been a bad card, maybe it became damaged from being under powered or the firmware on it might have been infected. I have no way of knowing.
But the most important thing is to always keep your system and ALL software & plugins on it completely up to date so as to secure it from any known security exploits in the system or the installed software. Also it is very important to keep the system clean and not to run anything that might possibly pose a risk to your system such as keygens, cracks or other such stuff. Not suggesting you've tried any.
As for Sleep, don't even waste time with Sleep or hibernation as it's a waste of time. Just use shut down as that's best for the system anyhow.
I do recommend using a DNS service such as OpenDNS.com to help protect your system & network as a first step.
A good site with a lot of information would be
Spywareinfoforum.com Forums. Check out the Security Warnings sub-Forum and the Software Update Announcements sub-Forum.
The Security Warnings sub-forum has enough info there to ah heck your mind and make you paranoid as all's hell if you're not already paranoid about the internet and the threads there are updated periodically depending on the news.
