I went to the previous posts and tried to figure out what to do before I posted this. I'm still not sure.

First...I've defrag..cleared my history, deleted temp internet files, restarted my computer. All the things I know to do.

Every day my computer has been getting slower and slower, dropping me off the internet and this a.m. I came in and my wallpaper had changed by its self. I think there's a virus somewhere but my scan isn't showing one.

I have McAfee and the spyware program that comes with AOL.

Anyone got any ideas about what I should do now? Before I have to call a professional?

Thanks, Cathy

another thing people fail to say. If you profile gets corupted you computer can run slow. you don't want your XP profile to get bigger then 3 gigs. Don't store thing in your profile unless you have too. Very large profiles can cause alot of problems. create a temp or another folder in the root. Best yet have at lease 2 partitions. store your music, files, photos and other stuff on 2nd partition.
create a new profile and copy favorite and desktop to new profile. then copy my documents to the new folder on the root. Wait a day or two before you delete the old profile. it's under my computer advance tab.

notice that she is running maybe 10 programs when Windows boots, walk her through the ms-config process =)

I think it might be wise to have a friend or professional check this out.

It's really hard to diagnose even one problem over a post, much less 2 or 3 issues. Your connection problem could be totally the fault of your ISP, a resource problem or a myriad of other things.

If you wait too long you might lose things you don't want to lose.

Beware of trying to many fixes at once or clicking on pop-ups that tell you that you have "71 dangerous virus's on your computer". Alot of that stuff is scams. There are plenty of free programs to aid in keeping your computer running smooth. Several were mentioned, but read the help files so you know what to do with it.

IMO I would wait on the restore option as well. That's more for returning your computer back to a stable state after trying out a new program or configuration that didn't quite "fit" with your existing software. If you have a nasty virus/malware, chances are it's already in the restore files too.

I think we would all just be making educated guesses at this point, which would be real hard without sitting down in front of your computer.

I took mine to Best Buy. They did a free 10 min. diagnostic test. They will ask if you want to pay for a longer, more thorough test where you leave the computer overnight. I took the 10 min. free test. It showed that my motherboard was fried. But...that's not your problem.

who said you could come out of your room?????

gawd...all that whining...you need to go to my "I want a new drug thread...NOW! God told me to tell you that!

Lightening is going to strike me real soon, I can tell it.

So...NOW you're doing what God tells you to do?

Nod32 is what I use.....wins for me hands down.

She'll need to take it to a professional to format. She's already said she's not tech savvy. Why spend countless hours frustrating yourself if your going to have to take it to someone in the end?

The problem with this is that most so-called professionals are happy to wipe your machine and then reformat and reload the O/S without actually backing up your content first. So sure, drop it in but either make sure you have it backed up or get them to do it!