Dell Dimension 8400
Windows XP sp.3
Intel Pentium 4, 3.00 Ghz
2 Gb 533 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM

Two days ago while my wife was randomly surfing the net, the AVG virus protection encountered a problem and sent multiple files to quarantine. She was able to write down one of them before the computer froze- windows\system32\smss.exe- which I know is vital. Now, when the computer is started and gets to the welcome screen, upon clicking on a user name it immediately logs back off. I cannot even access it in safe mode. As a last resort, I attempted to do a reinstall with the Dell OS disc. It came up with a message that it COULD not do it because the hard disc could not be found. I did a complete diagnostics test through hitting f12 at startup and the hard drive passed, as well as other tests.

Is there any way to reinstall the files that are in quarantine (first- finding a listing of all the programs that were sent!)? Is there another way to perform a reinstall if that is my only option? I do have access to another computer if downloads are needed. Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!Clik Here...

Many infections out there cannot be solved with just 1 tool...I read the post you directed me to. Unfortunately I can do none of the things mentioned there in my computers CURRENT state. I use AVG virus protection and firewall, ad-aware, and spybot on a regular basis before this happened.

Thank you for your reply... any suggestions??In my opinion AVG is pretty much worth exactly what you paid for it.

Download a boot time av scanner, burn it to a cd, and run it. LET's see if there's any malware AVG missed http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=0h&oq=download+boo&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS304US305&q=download+boot+time+av+scannerQuote from: Allan on February 22, 2010, 04:34:01 PM

In my opinion AVG is pretty much worth exactly what you paid for it.

Download a boot time av scanner, burn it to a cd, and run it. Let's see if there's any malware AVG missed http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=0h&oq=download+boo&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS304US305&q=download+boot+time+av+scanner