ITunes help: slow and timing out

Hello, I have a Dell Inspiron 1721 Laptop and I want to run iTunes, I am in serious need of new songs...
Everytime I run iTunes, it always takes long. Then it closes, saying something about a timeout. I get really mad, and try again. It done the same thing, then again for many times. One night It was going smoothly and it was at 98% and I was happy. But then it closed, so right now I'm ticked off. Then I checked my email, and it said New Song on iTunes and wondering if iTunes was already downloaded. So right now I'm very confussed and searching everywhere for the right answer. So do you know what's happening? HELP ME! I know nothing about computers...