[April7]

There is a program running automatically on my computer that causes my screensaver to turn off and prevents my computer from going into sleep mode—appears on the taskbar every 10 minutes or so. Assuming it was a virus or spyware, I ran Norton Antivirus, Ad-aware, Spybot. No virus found, some problems encountered by Spybot and Aw-aware, and I requested the programs fix those problems.

One day later, I found that my computer would not respond upon startup--Windows background is present, but clicking the mouse has no affect, and the cursor turns into an hourglass when down near the bottom of the screen. The only way that I can get the computer to respond is to do a start with Safe Mode and do a system restore using the Sbybot-created checkpoint. And I have to do this each time I start the computer! Did I delete something I shouldn’t have with Spybot or Ad-aware, or are all of my problems related to a virus/spyware? The mysterious program is still running--I see the icon appear on the task bar every 10 minutes or so, but it disappears very quickly. The computer works fine, as long as I don’t shut it off! Upon restart, I again encounter the same unresponsiveness and must enter from Safe Mode in order to do another system restore from the same point.

Upon advice from a friend, I entered "sysedit' in the Start--> Run box, and the config.sys and autoexec.bat files are empty. Is this normal?

I am also using a program called Security Task Manager, and it has identified two potential problems: C:\Windows\adsldpbc.dll and C:\Windows\System\st3.dll. Are these spyware programs that should be deleted? (Considering the problem that occurred shortly after I removed files with Spybot, I’m now worried about deleting files that should not be deleted!)

My operating system is Windows XP Professional, I have updated with Service Pack 2, and the most recent Windows update. My Norton Antivirus is set for automatic updates and automatic scans, so I thought I was safe! Thank you so much for any assistance!!!