Unexpected Terminations of Applications

I recently upgraded an old HP Pavilion computer to Windows XP. It boots up fine and everything but when I try to open the McAfee Console or AOL Instant Messanger, the programs will open for a few seconds and then disappear. IE and Office opens up just fine and won’t terminate until told to but certain programs will. It sounds like a virus at work but I couldn’t find any hits on what virus it could be. If anyone has any information, please help.