I am having a problem with my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop (Win XP SP2 running AVG 8.0, ADAWARE, and Zone Alarm) and hope you can offer some suggestions. I have been through the process outlined here and similar forums to erraticate viruses/malware before, but this time I'm stuck.
Here's what happened:
I was on the internet and got a popup window that said something about a script running and asked if I want to close it. I just X’d out of it. About 15-minutes later, I got off the net and did some work in EXCEL. When I got finished, I started running a drive cleaner (HD Cleaner) which I have used for several years on various computers without a problem. I typically run this utility at least once a month. At some point after it finished, I returned to find the screen display size increased by about 300%. That is, I could only see about half of what I should be seeing. I tried to resize through Control Panel/Display/Settings but the "APPLY/OK" buttons at the bottom of the box were no longer there...so I couldn't resize. Also, It would not allow me to “RESTORE” previous computer settings. I realized then that I probably had a virus so I started following steps that I have used in the past to get rid of it. However, because the screen display was so large, I could not do anything. I did not have the option of scrolling up or down. I was able to access the internet and load a Microsoft malware removal tool, but again, the display was so large that I could not “reach” the RUN button to activate it. Next, I tried to reboot in "SAFE MODE", but that was a no-go. It would start to load the index and then freeze about halfway through. I tried safe mode several times to no avail, even safe mode with command prompt. Now when I boot and try to load windows normally, I will get the Windows XP splash screen followed by the screen that allows me to select the user account, but when I select one (I tried them all) it loads my desktop wallpaper, and then freezes. I get no desktop icons, no taskbar or "START" button. I ONLY see the desktop wallpaper. I'm afraid now I'm stuck...any suggestions? It seems to me that whatever fix there may be will have to come through the CD drive.
