Hi. I am using Windows XP on an Acer computer that is less than a year OLD. I have 512MB RAM and 1.6gig Intel Celeron processor. A little over a month ago I let a friend of mine borrow my computer. That is when I had problems start. Well he says that he didnt do anything but Im not sure. The computer starts up real slow, it is less than a year old and it takes about 10 mins or so to boot up completely. Once it is booted up it takes a while for anything that i choose to do to register and actually start. Any type of media that I play, whether it be a song or video, it lags and kinda seems to skip like a scratched cd, and I dont do a lot of things at once and I have not downloaded any large files or a lot of small files. I check my task manager and it shows 61 processes. I have been recently trying to learn about which programs are most important for me to be RUNNING but its seems to be most of them all are important. I used to have an old expired Norton Antivirus but I got rid of that and put in Spyware Doctor with Antivirus PROTECTION and I update it reglularly. I have FOUND some viruses but I dont know the extemety of them, but when I got rid of them the performance of the computer did not increase. I am currently deployed in Iraq and I dont have any means to take it somewhere to get fixed. Im not computer stupid but I do have a bit of learning to do. If I were to reformat my computer, would that fix the problem and get rid of any virus that I might have? Would I be able to put all the files that I do not want to part with in a flash drive and tansfer them back into the computer after the reformat is complete? Or would I just be PUTTING a virus back in the computer if I do infact have a virus? Or is there any easier steps that you might be able to think about that Im not thinking of? Thank you for your help.1) Update your malware protection...any antivirus or spyware/adware programs you have installed.

2) Boot into Safe Mode.

3) Run full system scans using your malware protection...one program at a time. Let them delete and or quarantine whatever they find.

4) Boot into Windows normally and run your scans again...letting them delete and/or quarantine whatever they find.

5) Download, install and run Hijack This. Post your log here...

Someone will get back to you...Thanks...Hi Burntdoughnuts - welcome to the CH forums.

This might be of help to you.

Be safe, keep safe and hope you return home hale & hearty.

Good luckget ccleaner to remove junk files on your computer.. post the log and we'll look into it. look here for a computer tune up guide i made (with others help)