Need help

Okay, before I go pay for someone's opinion on my macbook, I figured I'd tap into the genius of online forums first.
I have a macbook pro, bought from new line in 2009, it originally ran just leopard. I ended up using bootcamp so I could have a PC side for programs at school. My computer has always acted funny since then: Trouble booting up (I would have to power it down by holding the power button then power it back up because the computer wouldn't load to the desktop), it also started freezing quite often, and other noticeable differences from before bootcamp. I recently got fed up with it and decided to reboot with the start up disk. The first thing it asks me to do is restart the computer to get the program started. My macbook, however, can't "restart" the normal way. A screen pops up and says, "You need to restart your computer, Hold down the power button for several seconds, or press the restart button." I've tried to leave it on that screen to see if the computer will just do it's business after awhile, but it stays on that screen as long as it has power. So I try holding the power button down and restarting it that way. But like I stated before it has trouble booting up. Sometimes takes several tries. Once, however, I was able to get it to start up on the first try that way, but still the program did not run and I had to load the disk from scratch again.
It's a never ending loop of head aches. I'm sure most answers will be to take it in to someone to work on it or give up and get a new one. But I figured if anyone has had this problem and fixed it, and knows a way that I can do this on my own, then this is worth the first shot.
Thank you, and happy mac-booking!

Hi mac_fan
I don't pretend to know the answer, there are far cleverer guys in all things Apple on here than me. However when I was running my business I installed Desktop Parallels on a 2007 MacBook to cope with the occasional emailed Word (type) Doc that Pages couldn't open. I liked the idea of the virtual machine and the protection it afforded against DOS type viruses, and the program itself solved my problems, (I did cringe when my laptop played the Windows sound though).

Anyway, back to your problem, although I told the computer to allow the smallest amount of partitioning for Windows in the automatic prompt on installation of Desktop Parallels, having been assured that 1G of memory was enough to run the software, I immediately encountered the problems you are describing, which was fixed by adding another 1G.
It was always the case though, that even with the extra memory, the MacBook was never quite as fast as it was before Desktop Parallels was installed.

Fortunately Pages 09 seems much better at opening non Pages docs than the earlier version, and Numbers always was good at opening eg., Excel, so I find I no longer have a problem with opening anything and so, I no longer have Desktop Parallels installed.

I hope this helps, but if there is some other reason for your problem, I'm sure you will get good advice here. I did when I joined only a few days ago.
C.