Slow computer/messenger service popups

I have a Dell laptop - less than a year old. I just started connecting to the Internet via a cable line. Since then the computer has been very sluggish - takes forever to load or do anything, I get tons of "messenger service" popups and the desktop has now changed to an orange color with orange vertical stripes on the sides.

I'm going to try loading spyware and I found some info on Microsoft's site about getting rid of the messenger service popups. I did Norton and Symantec's virus scan and found nothing.

Any ideas?

 

Welcome to Major Geeks.
Please take the time to read this
http://www.majorgeeks.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25834

 

Also, did you disable the Messenger service as per Microsoft?

Start > Run > services.msc > double-click on Messenger > set 'Startup Type' to Disabled

 

The slow performance could be caused by an infection of the Sasser/Blaster worm.

LSA Exploit
RPC Exploit

You should install some Firewall- and AntiVirus- Software