Computer problem, need help.

[fsh]

I would type a little more detaill of it in the title, but I don't know how to describe it. Actually, I don't know where to start. Ok. Well, the first problem is that when I try to open Task Manager, I see it, then it closes right away. There is no time to do anything. Same problem goes with lots of other problems. I tried using Hijack This, it flicks on and off too. I can still use the internet and firefox though.
I know I have spyware, I allready did like 10 checks with ad-aware, updated and all.
So is there anything I could do to fix any of these problems, for free? Or should I just consider Reformatting? Any suggestions will be usefull.

[Paradigm^]

Boot into Safe Mode (press F8 on startup) and run Ad-Aware in Safe Mode - it'll stop the spyware loading on startup and give Ad-Aware a chance to kill it completely.

[eleanor]

Just a question: have you got something holding down the Escape or Ctrl key? (not that I speak from experience or anything :ninja: )

[titanic]

har har the esc key....

but seriously

safe mode then scan, it might also be a good idea to turn off system restor before hand as some stuff hides in there

[Al2]

Yeah 'cause she didn't phone me or whatever one day thinking she had a virus and I came over Nortonned to the teeth (I was naive) ready to obliterate viruses only to find she had her plate on the control key. Nope.

[Chassisbot]

Indeed, try running your anti-virus programs and all that shit in safe-mode first.

[fsh]

Thanks for all the replies. Well the problem got worse, so I reformatted allready. I would feel like such a fool if it was something holding down the ctrl key, hopefully nothing did. Anyways, plusses for the helpful posts.

[Comrade Smith]

well next time just run msconfig and only startup with system tasks.

there have been times where I wissh I had knewn that

[Meatwad]

Smith, that doesn't work sometimes. Like the time when my explorer.exe was infected with something.

Sometimes theres nothing you can do except a good old fashion reformat.

[Comrade Smith]

to right, but just in case I keep a spare shell

[eleanor]

Aww. I trotted out my plate-on-ctrl-key story to no avail then. :( Alas. I was there hoping I wasn't the only one in the world who'd done something that silly, but it seems I am! \o/

[Lagmeister]

Nope, I did that when I was 10, last time I left a surprisingly heavy choclate bar on my desk, but I figured out what was going on before I called for help, well I didnt figure it out I just wanted the tasty, tasty chocolate bar.

[eleanor]

Yeah? I was 19 when I did it. :ninja:

[Timmeh]

I had that exact problem before (in the days before Unix)... I think it was probably a virus, I solved it by doing a full OS reinstall, then running an avast scan before windows loads... an avast scan by itself won't work.