I really have no idea what to do

Hello,

I'm using Windows Vista on a Toshiba Satellite Laptop.

While I was making room on my computer to import a video from my camera, I got a bunch of weird pop-up windows about servers that don't work and things like that. Eventually, my computer shut itself down.

When it rebooted itself, it started up normally, a window that mentioned something like "DCOM process server launcher has stopped working" and then the computer shut down and rebooted again. I held down the power button to turn it off after a few cycles of shutting down and turing on.

Is there any way I can fix this without having to clear my hard drive using the manufacture's CD-ROM.

P.S.
I know very little about computers so if there is a solution, it would be greatly appreciated if the directions were given in simple terms. thanks