Chilli

I apologise if this has been mentioned beforehand but my laptop has picked up the nuisance virus About Blank so when I run my laptop it runs very, very slow and when i finally run Internet Explorer after one or two chances to browse i get redirected to a page telling me that my computer is infected and to install the latest anti virus program. I have installed programs such as Stopzilla, Regcure and XoftSpySE and when I run them they all say there is infections but to remove them then I have to get a license key and to do that then I have to pay for it. Am I at the point where I have to pay for programs to remove malware or is there an alternative way. My laptop is running Windows XP Home Edition with AVG Free 8.0 and Commodo Firewall Pro. I have installed Spybot S&D and Advanced Windowscare and they have removed items they found but About Blank is still there. I have run AVG and done a full scan but I have read that because this is not a virus then the anti virus program will not remove it. I would greatly appreciate any help you can give me please, Chilli

A while ago i left a thread about my laptop crashing. A big thankyou to everyone who replied. I tried using it in safe mode and using the command prompt to try and sort out the problem but because I could not make any progress and mostly because i was getting fed up with the thing not working I tried to re-install xp from another disc. This did not work as the computer would not recognise the final code you need to get the program working. Finally, I used the restore disc which came with the laptop, something I should perhaps have done in the first place and this appears to have worked. What it has done though is what it says on the tin i.e. the pc is now back to how it was originally when i first got it with just the basics on it and everything that I had put on it such as music, work projects and videos/piccies have all gone. Have they gone forever, or is there any way at all that some or all the files can be restored? And has the fault that caused all the trouble gone too or has it simply been covered over? I would greatfully appreciate any help you could provide in this matter. Chilli

Hello, my laptop has now ground to a halt and is displaying the following message: STOP c000021a {Fatal System Error} The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000022 (0x00000000 0x00000000) The system has been shut down. Surfing the net a week or so ago and i installed what it identifies itself as XP Antivirus, not knowing that it says i have to pay to get the full version, this one will only scan and not remove what it has found, over 2000 infection according to it. I keep getting pop ups about carrying on unprotected and i cannot un-install because i keep getting told that un-install has encounterd a problem and needs to shut down. I have un-installed other programs and not had any problem, only with this one. I don't know if this is related to my problem but i would greatly appreciiate any help you can give me please. Also, the restore disc i got with the pc does nothing as it goes straight to the error message. Many thanks.