About a week ago I started having problems with my computer. I noticed that when I wanted to log off, a message box saying something along the lines of "_PTAHYDRA is now closing. Ending now may lose any saved data". The box would then close and take me to to log in screen. This message does not show up all the time, however, and a day ago it made me think I had actually got rid of it. Until it came back. It is not listed on my computer with my other programs.
I have also noticed that my computer seems to be running a little slower than usual. Also, if I am online, and click on a link on a page, it sometimes redirects me to a different one. For example, I asked about _PTAHYDRA on yahoo answers, and someone suggested this site. When I clicked on the forum link on the home page of this site, it redirected me to eBay.
I have used ad-aware, and although I did find a number of cookies and spyware, I was able to delete, the message still shows up. A friend suggested trying AVG, but I had actually downloaded a free copy, and ran into problems running it, and had to un-install that program, so I am a little leary of doing that. Another freind suggested Housecall, and when I tried that, it seemed to take a long time, and once it had found things on my computer, and I tried to clean it, there was no indictation that it had actually done so, in the two times I tried it.
Can anyone tell me exactly what _PTAHYDRA is, why it is on my computer, and what I can do about it? I am a novice at computers, so if anyone can give me advice or suggestions that are easy to follow, I would really appreciate it.
Thank you!