Help. Not sure what is wrong with my computer.

[cheezhed97]

I have Windows XP Home Edition. At this point, I can only load my computer in safe mode. 90% of the time it freezes on the welcome screen, and the times it loads past that, it runs very slow. Clicking and typing is on a 15 - 20 second delay. I was able to hit control+alt+delete and see that my memory usage was at 100% and the files that put it there were constantly being switched between different .exe files being run under my user name, not the system or the other services. I can run the McAfee Virus Scan in safe mode but it tells me that there are no infected files. I am pretty sure I have a virus. All this happened less than 24 hours after I got roadrunner high speed internet installed. I am not sure what to do at this point. I don't want to be on my computer in safe mode all the time. Has anybody else had this happen to them? And if so, what did you do?

Virus scan:

Build: 10.0.27

Engine Version: 4450

DAT Version: 4807

DAT File Created: July/14/2006

Computer:

Microsoft Windows XP

Home Edition

Version 2002

Service Pack 1

Dell Dimension Dim2350 Intel

Pentium 4 CPU 2.20 GHz

2.19 GHz

256 MB of RAM

[Tarun]

You may want to start by reading the Introduction To Anti-Malware And Cleaning thread, as it refers to the PC Cleanup guide that will help you check for malware on your pc.

[allen2]

Also if you're using your computer to acces internet directly, you should install SP2 perhaps after doing a clean install as your computer might be infected with a lot of malwares.

[Tarun]

After doing a clean install? A format is always the very last option. Yes, SP2 is needed, but the malware can easily be removed from the system.

[allen2]

Not everyone can remove all malware from a really infected computer. Sometimes formating is the faster solution.

[Tarun]

Not everyone can remove all malware from a really infected computer. Sometimes formating is the faster solution.

Yes they can. It's not hard either. Formatting is always the last option.