The PC is suffering from very very poor performance - up to 3 to 4 minutes to pop up menu when you press the start key - the startup menu programs don't seem to complete within two hours of booting up - unable to power off due to programs not closing.
When I tried obvious step 1 - Running Task Manager - I wasn't able to run task manager. CTRL/ALT/DEL did not bring up and window - and when I tried Start --> Run --> taskmgr --> nothing happened. I then tried to power off (had to resort to plugging it out) and re-started. Safe mode wouldn't start - gave me an error with a video adaptor that wouldn't start.
I did try and search for the taskmgr.exe - but even after selecting it in explorer (after maybe 90 minutes !!) it wouldn't run - so I powered the machine off and left it to cool....
So, from reading in some forums etc - I suspect a MALWARE infection of some kind. I'd appreciate help - as the owner of the machine does need it for work. It's a XP machine (maybe 3 years old) with AVG 7.5 on it - but from reading all sorts I'm sure it is disabled by whatever virus has a hold on it.
Where should I start - what sort of information can I provide - and what things should I not do - it is disconnected from the Internet at present - I do have another machine I can use to download files to work on it. Thanks in advance.