RandyL

Install Avast only as an AV. (free) You have vista so Windows Defender is installed and that is one form of realtime antimalware. (free) Use SAS free and MWB free for the occasional scan and removal of malware. (free) If you want other realtime malware blocking only look at the products we suggested such as Spywareblaster. (free) Get Mcafee Site Advisor to warn of malicious sites. (free) If you want to buy SAS and MWB you can and that will give you even more real time protection if you're paranoid. Keep in mind that SAS and MWB can only be run as real time protection if you actually pay for it. The free scan version is fine to run. If you get a hacked, cracked or any torrent version you will likely be right back to an infested machine that we will not help you with per our rules. Get back to us when you are ready to update windows and get the proper programs after the reinstall.

SAS is an anti-spyware/anti-adware program. That is a different kind of malware than viruses. There are also program suites that do both. The point is never run two real time anti-virus programs at the same time. You can run multiple antispyware/adware programs in real time. You can run just a scan with an antivirus program without installing it as real time protection. MWB will do the scan and remove for free if you want without installing the real time protection feature. Kaspersky is a good antivirus program. You can install SAS along side it or just use SAS free to scan and remove. You can also use MWB free scan as I said. Use one AV only in real time protection. Antispyware/antiadware you can run alongside.

I was just wondering if you tried remove or uninstall the CD drive itself. Or did you just remove the drivers? It might not make a difference but it can't hurt. Immediately reboot and see if Windows detects new hardware and installs the drivers for it. Are you getting any error codes?

It could be a bad drive but you need to rule out any crap on your computer first. I say this because if you have been torrenting you could have all manner of crap on your computer. Your system has also not been updated with Microsoft updates so that could cause infections. Now about your system being clean. It is not clean. That program is not a malware cleaner. In addition any program that purports to do what it says has to be worthless at best and may have corrupted your registry. Considering what I know of your system so far you're in for a world of hurt and cleanup. That is why Wolfeymole suggested a reinstall. By the way what security do you have?

Hi Debi; Take a look at Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Recommended Security products. Avast and Avira are free and much better. There are some other products there you might be interested in,

That's fantastic nuley. I hadn't given up and had a couple more ideas but you figured out the rest yourself. Thanks so much for letting us know what worked in your case. I wish you the best of luck from here on.

Hi bob; The next step up and probably the easiest option is to use Microsoft Works Word Processor. It has more options than Wordpad but less options than a full Office Suite. It should be located in the main All Programs in a Microsoft folder. Start>All Programs> Microsoft> Microsoft Works Word Processor. It has a spell check icon in the standard toolbar or by Tools>Spelling and Grammer. If you don't want all the toolbar items showing go to View>Toolbars>Standard Toolbars. Let us know if you have it and what you think.

First of all a System Restore will not mess up anything. It simply restores to a point before you messed up your system. It would seem your current state is already messed up so a Restore is the best option. As I also stated I think your current efforts such as that program you mentioned that is likely worthless has just made things worse yet you continue to use it in spite of the warning. In fact a Restore might undo that programs damage if you are lucky. You have failed an install. You have hacked at your system. You continue to try a program that did not work. You did not follow the best advice. For that matter you can't even tell us what version of Nero you tried or what medium it was on or where you got it. What version is it and where did you get it?

In my opinion you should try a System Restore like Wolfeymole suggested. For that matter I would try restoring to the earliest point possible if you have been mucking about with programs like that cleaner. I have absolutely no faith in those things.

You might want to read this Dell suport article.

Hi nuley; I have to admit that I know next to nothing about iTunes. That being said I'll point out a couple things. Other than your C drive your other drives "renamed themselves". Your iTunes or some portion of it was on your C drive and one of your other external drives. In other words I don't know why your drive letters have changed or what part of iTunes is on which drives. To begin with I suggest disconnecting ALL external drives including your camera or iPod. I say this because I think you need to completely uninstall i Tunes from your main drive then reinstall it without any remnants being picked up from any external drive. You will want to uninstall from C and reinstall to C. From iTunes support, Removing iTunes, QuickTime, and other software components for Windows XP follow the instructions for; Removing iTunes Removing Quicktime Removing Apple Software Update Removing Apple Mobile Device Support Also note the iPodService.exe Alert I don't know about backing up any music folders or any such aspect of iTunes but if you have any you might need see if you can backup apart from your C drive as you may have to dump those too. The point is you need to 100% completely get rid of everything iTunes, Quicktime or Apple from your C drive. Then reinstall all iTunes components to C without anything else connected to your computer. Once done try to launch it. If that goes well you might or might not be able to get your backed up music. Like I said I don't know it. For rinstalling you should look at the iTunes Install Support Page. After all this try the latest version iTunes 8.2.1 for Windows XP or Vista

Hi Horrawr; The AVG downloads from AVG are clean. You would not have got infected from there. If you got AVG from P2P or torrents then that could be a problem. Follow the guide exactly as listed. You already said you installed Malwarebytes and Superantispyware and ran them. It seems you can't connect to their sites to update them however. Download and burn to disk or a thumbdrive the updates on another computer. You can then install the updates to your computer. Malwarebytes Updates. Superantispyware Updates. If need be you can run the scans in safemode. Pay close attention to all the instructions including temporarily disabling any AV and clearing your System Restore points. Note also to reboot as instructed. Follow the guide to it's end before doing anything else with your computer. If anything is found let us know what it is. Also what other symptoms are you experiencing? Let us know how it goes please.

That's great heckler. Thanks for letting us know.

ATI Windows XP Home/Professional Legacy Radeon 1550 Series drivers Option 2 gives you the choice to download the 3/18/2009 Display Driver only. Of course it may be that your card is failing. That would be my guess.

For the reasons stated by wellies I have edited your post and started a new thread for you. This is the new thread. Continue to post in this thread.

Hi again: While you wait you could disable but not uninstall AVG just as a test. But of course use a free AV in the mean time. What firewall are you using heckler? Please do inform us of what AVG says. It might help many people. Thanks heckler.

Hi naveen; Are you using Symantec Endpoint Protection?

It didn't matter if you told me or not. I had already figured it out. You are in violation of rule 4 here. The Rules This only confirms what I already knew. You need to obtain legal software. Reinstall Windows too. All of your software is illegal and or cracked. In addition you are a novice and a hack. Get legal everything. Also you should study for years to learn the truth about computers. In addition you should take good advice when given instead of cheating and arguing and overstating your knowledge. Get a legitimate copy of Windows and other software and we can help you. We will not help otherwise and we will ask for proof in the future. Reinstall a legit Windows. Prove it. Follow our advice to the letter. In the mean time this thread is closed forever.

Hi Donald; I hope you find what you need here.

Did you try to restore a year old registry backup?

Understanding most of the reg stuff is not good enough. Especially with all the crap ones you have.

Where are you getting these programs? Acronis for example.

What is this custom install you speak of?

Editing a post is by design. It avoids confusion. Slave the drive and backup your files. What do you mean by custom setups. This is important.

chaos consider this. Any reg cleaner is not safe unless you understand the registry. You have run many in the past. Are you an expert with the registry? If not then after you ran all those cleaners I gauranty problems. Are you familiar with just some of these registry terms? manual registry backup-Architecture-hive structure-strings-value data-paths-dll files Do you know how to write registry files? You have corrupted your system by not knowing what you are doing. As for drivers your picture clearly states that that you have issues with your firmware. Your add-on programs have to be suspect too whatever they are. It's clear that you are guessing and only think you know what you are doing. In cases like this I could spend hundreds of hours or just a few fixing it if I had it in front of me. But I wouldn't waste my time after seeing what just some of the things are here. The bottom line is you have TOTALLY corrupted Windows. No doubt about it. How would you propose to fix that short of reinstalling since you can't even boot. Don't forget your basic drivers are corrupted too. You can't boot without those. You can't fix it without booting. Once you reinstall I suggest you follow OUR advice on what you do later.