Very bizarre problems...

[Yaridovich]

I apologize if this is not where I ought to be posting this. If it's not, then please move it to the correct forum.

That said, this computer is, I believe, majorly infected even as I speak. Here's a summary of the problems I'm experiencing. These problems are very sporadic - they don't apply themselves 100% of the time, but appear at random times, apparently.

- Rapid (like, machine-gun-esque) dinging - as in the sound Windows XP makes when it doesn't like something you just did - whenever a new window or menu is opened.

- Whenever a new folder is opened, it goes directly to the desktop (in folder form). Also, while this isn't always the case, sometimes when a link is clicked on a web page, it takes you back to the home page.

- The backspace key is very unusually sensitive, and when it's barely tapped, it acts like it's being held. Also, the shift key sometimes deletes text as well. I'm not sure if this is a problem with my keyboard or my computer, but it started about the same time as the other problems.

It should be noted that my computer had this same exact problem a few months ago, and we were forced to wipe the hard drive. It also should be noted that Norton doesn't detect a thing. We ran a virus scan yesterday, and one infected file was found and fixed, but it just came back again. Any help identifying the problem would be greatly appreciated.

[Miz]

Try another virus scan or two for a second opinion.

There are free online scans at Panda and Housecall.

One scan might find something where another won't.

If a virus, or viruses don't turn out to be the cause, try scanning for and removing spyware.

Two free programs I recommend are Spybot and/or Ad-Aware. Update each before running their scans and their help files are well written. I use both since each tends to find things the other misses. Let them clean up any spyware found.

[Yaridovich]

At the moment, it seems to have gone into recession - or perhaps it's just plain gone. If it strikes again, however, I'll most certainly follow your suggestions and let you know how they work out.

Thank you.