Spyware or hardware problem

My computer takes twice as long to do anything. To burn a DVD with DVD Decrypter it takes 30-45 min (usually 15max.). Boot up takes twice as long. All sound and video is choppy, laggy and distorted. Even when windows comes online and it plays its classic start up sound that is distorted and choppy. My mouse will jump across the screen if I try to move it when it is “thinking”. I can open video that is on the “infected” hard drive from a different computer on my network. It works just fine.

It all started when my computer booted up one day and decided to do a scan disk. It got to part 4 of 5 and froze and wouldn’t boot. So I booted into safe mode. That didn’t work either and it froze at Drivers\Mup.sys I then booted with my last working configuration and went through the READ ME FIRST BEFORE ASKING FOR SUPPORT: Basic Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal tutorial. I did not disable the system restore because that was the only way I could log on at the time. If I deleted that I was afraid I couldn’t use my last working config to start my computer (wasn’t sure). So I ran the tests and Bit Defender found 3 Trojan horses (don’t remember the name sorry but they were in my firefox browser) the other programs caught some various spyware and cookies. Nothing that couldn’t be cleaned. Since I went thru the tutorial it will boot normally all the time but I still cannot start in safe mode. My Computer still runs like crap so I disabled the system restore and went at it again. This is what I found

1 Panda and it found one case of spyware but I cannot seem to get rid of it:
Registry KEY: Spyware:spyware/searchcentrix
2 BIT Defender the second time around nothing.
3 Spybot search and Destroy 1 item. Windows security center firewall override. I ran it again and it was clean.
4 Adware SE nothing
5 CCleaner logs attached.
6 Symantec antivirus has 3 items in quarantine. Other than that it is clean
a. Adware.GameSpy.Arcade
b. Adware.mwsearch
c. Adware.GameSpy.Arcade
7. I have also run reg supreme since I read somewhere that has fixed similar problems.
8. Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic. Came back with no errors.

This is what I am running:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
AMD Athlon Barton 2500+
1GB Corsair XMS
250 GB WD
Game Theater XP
Lite-On 812s DVD burner.

 

I had that specific page bookmarked because I was referencing it often when I was cleaning. I guess I will go thru it again.

 

I guess you have a good point there. I cant seem to figure out where to go from here. It seemed like malware was slowing my computer down. So I thought I would have you take a look at my HJT log and maybe you would see something I didnt. Thanks for the help do you move my post to a hardware section? If you have one. Thanks.

 

Yes I disabled XP’s built in firewall and am using Sygate firewall instead. I do receive a message from windows when I reboot my computer that my computer is not protected by a firewall. I think this is just because I have the windows one disabled and Sygate running. It must be jelous.

I cannot get into safe mode. It will stop at drivers\mup.sys and freeze. I have tried to repair with the windows disk but still cant boot in safe mode.

I have tried stopping as many processes as I can. Still no difference. My computer had plenty of power before. Even when I was burning a DVD, watching a Movie, printing a DVD label and downloading I would never have any problems.

The system idle process is at 99 or 98 all the time but at the bottom CPU usage is at 0%. But if I open or do anything (I opened firefox) it will go from 0-77-100-86-100-etc% and it will take 11 seconds to open firefox or IE. To me that is very slow. I have a 3 Mb cable connection and usually is open within 1-2 sec.

 

I had tried to do a defrag on my D drive which is a 195GB partition with 100GB free. I started it before I went to work and when I came home 13 hours later it was only 33% complete. I had to cancel it because it was only going 3% every 4 hours.

I have no problems rebuilding my computer. It has been a year since I have installed XP on my computer. When I had the first scare of losing all my data I immediately put all important files on a removable HD. I do not want to rebuild a broke system if the hardware is bad. It might take 24hrs to load windows if the hardware keeps acting like this. If it does come down to it, I was thinking about just formatting the C: drive instead of the whole hard drive. I wanted to leave my D drive alone. Do you think this will be ok?

How should I test my hardware in a situation like this? Or how do I find out if it is my Software or hardware that is causing the problem?

 

I have reinstalled Windows and it has fixed the problem. Ahh it is nice to have a fresh install. The worst part is reloading all the programs, especially when the microsoft nazi's wont let you get windows update.

 

Well my copy of XP used to be legit. It is a copy that has SP1 inigrated. I was able to get automatic updates before but now I cant. I know I need to get up to date. I will find a way. Thanks for the help Sorry if I wasted your time. You have a great site here.