Not sure what is happening...

I am trying to fix my friend's computer. It was running slow, there wasn't enough free space to get WIN SP2, and they didn't have anti-virus software, plus the teen in the house had downloaded a bunch of free stuff. I ran Ad-aware, Stinger, Spybot (couple of spyware programs it couldn't delete), got AVG and ran it (it found a Trojan Horse on two different occasions), along with Hijack This (went through but it looked clean) and a couple of other programs I use on my computer. I got rid of a bunch of unnecessary programs, cleaned the disk, ran the startup configuration, cleaned out internet files and cookies, and defragged, all the basics. After all this, I unbelievably ended up with about 100-200 MB's less than when I started! The free amount of space on the C drive is variable from one hour to the next. I tried to do something allocate different amounts of memory and move the page file, but that didn't help (unless I did it wrong). Other things that are happening are sometimes an internet address will not load either from a link (have to right-click and open in a new window) or else straight from the address bar (even www.google.com didn't work). I have no idea what else to do. Anyone up for helping?

 

I completed all the steps up to restarting the computer in safe mode with networking. I tried doing that, and it looked like things were going alright, but then it got stuck and wouldn't load up completely (seems to get stuck at some program MUP.exe or something). I tried it a couple of times.

 

No, I am just trying to load WIN XP in safe mode with networking...I can't even access the interface (is that the right term?). It looks like it is still in DOS mode when it gets stuck. It goes to load up, scrolls through all these processes/programs whatever, and then it gets stuck on MUP, and I can't do anything at all, except hold the power button and turn it off.

 

I let it sit for about 3-4 minutes.

If it won't go in safe mode w/ networking, should I just go through all the steps in normal mode? (Would that be the next best option?) I didn't get through most of the READ ME because I wasn't able to get past the downloading the programs needed to clean properly.

 

I know it has been a week or so, but the computer crashed after trying to go through the steps. I didn't make it all the way through. I was trying to restart, and it just wouldn't boot back up. What do you do when that happens? My friend pushed CTRL-ALT-DELETE a bunch while it was trying to load and it loaded some sort of DOS page, but we were unsure of what to do after this. If you could help out with this, it'd be great (they're pretty bummed about their computer not working.)