help is this a hardware problem?

After two days of trying to check for bad sectors, I gave up to go ahead and try the CD extended scan. I'm fixing to cry because I've changed the the setting to boot from CD because I could not boot it with F12. I cannot get past the starting windows screen, it's taking forever. I desperately powered off and started again and I still either get a black screen with a mouse pointer after starting windows or just a starting windows screen. It's asking me to do a recommended start up repair , but I know that would take 2 years. My HDD light stays lit and never blinks. I'm scared to keep powering off by the power button. In the past whenever start up repair was my only option, it would never fix itself. That's why I had to reset to original settings and about 4 times, and the 4th led me to this mess I'm in now...frustrated.

Which HD Diagnostic scan are you running? How was it burned to CD?

Since you got good performance out of puppy Linux we can set aside the memory and mobo for now, focus on the HD which seems to be balking a bit at testing with HD Diagnostics and Disk Check. Both need to be run and passed.

I downloaded and burned at the slowest speed the ISO file for Seagate. Is that what you were asking which HD scan? I can't get it to boot. I chaged the boot sequence and it still tries to start Windows which will not get anywhere and I went ahead and tried start up repair and it wants a Windows installation disc which I do not have. I changed the boot sequence back to default and it still will never get anywhere past the starting windows or a black screen with a responsive mouse cursor. When I clicked on start windows repair, my windows boot manger states that boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.
I was getting good response from Puppy at first til I started accessing and copying files then it was downhill from there with all the same lagging symptoms. Im talking like 12 hours to move maybe 50 pictures. I was only able to navigate very smoothly through files when I wasn't doing anything in the background, which was hit and miss while under Windows.

I did get through a regular disc check through windows before I attempted the sector check. I did them separately so not to try too much at once and it said it fixed a few errors. But now it seems to be doing worse.

Are you using Download SeaTools for DOS ISO Image from this page: SeaTools for DOS | Seagate

Once it's downloaded rightclick on it to burn to CD with Windows Image Burner, or install ImgBurn
to burn to CD at 4x speed.

Put the CD in the drive and tap the Gateway F10 key to boot the CD, or follow these steps:
How to Boot your Computer from a Bootable CD or DVD - Boot to CD

I've tried 4 different Cd's now and the only thing I may get on my screen when pushing F10 is edit boot options. I even tried it with the ISO recorder. It will not boot from it.

Does it show CD drive as one of the F10 boot options?

If not use the blue linked tutorial to enter BIOS setup and set CD drive first to boot.

At reboot look for prompt to "Press any key to boot CD."

I've tried that too, I've set USB cd-rom to number 1. there is nothing that pops up but f2 for setup. I've tried over and over with all discs, writing speeds, and three different burning programs.

Do you have a CD drive which is connected by USB cable?

I'm sorry for taking so long. No it's inside the laptop but that's all I have listed. I have USB cdrom, USB hdd, USB fdd, ideo 0-2, and network boot: LEGACY PCI DEVICE.