My laptop is grinding to a standstill

hello there
I have an Dell Inspiron 1300, running Windows XP.
For the last few months the laptop has been running slower and slower, and psoftware like Word, Access can take nearly two minutes to load.
Often mouse clicks are ignored - like 'Del' in my email account Thunderbird.
when I use Task Manager I often notice that CPU usage (especially when I connect to the internet) is very high, even when I am not running any programs.
I would be very grateful for any help you can give.
many thanks
Nicola:D
nam22

Close/disable all the applications excluded AVZ and Internet Explorer.

- Disconnect your PC from network (internet/intranet)
- Disable antivirus, firewall and other memory resident security tools
- Disable System Restore

- [URL="http://virusinfo.info/showthread.php?t=9207"]Execute following script[/URL]
[CODE]begin
SearchRootkit(true, true);
SetAVZGuardStatus(True);
ClearQuarantine;
RegKeyDel('HKLM','SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Code Store Database\Distribution Units\{DF780F87-FF2B-4DF8-92D0-73DB16A1543A}');
QuarantineFile('C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files\popcaploader.dll','');
DeleteFile('C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files\popcaploader.dll');
BC_ImportAll;
ExecuteSysClean;
BC_Activate;
SetAVZPMStatus(True);
RebootWindows(true);
end.[/CODE]

[COLOR="Red"]If the system after reboot would try to install any unknown hardware, abort the installtion and remove unknown hardware over hardware manager[/COLOR]

After reboot:

[URL="http://virusinfo.info/showthread.php?t=9207"]execute following script[/URL]
[code]begin
CreateQurantineArchive('C:\quarantine.zip');
end.
[/code]
- Upload the C:\quarantine.zip over the link [COLOR="Red"][B]Upload quarantined files[/B][/COLOR] on the top of this page.
- Clean Temp-Maps, Cache of Browsers, Recycler. Use Windows service tool [URL="http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B315246&x=17&y=6"]cleanmgr[/URL] or [URL="http://www.ccleaner.com/"]CCleaner[/URL] or [URL="http://www.clearprog.de/"]ClearProg[/URL].
- Make new logs and attach them to the new posting.

[FONT=&quot]
hello there
[/FONT]Have followed instructions - I hope correctly.

No quarantine.zip file was generated - only a folder with two avz files - dta and ini, so I haven't updloaded them.

When you said [FONT=&quot]Make new logs and attach them to the new posting.[/FONT]- I am assuming you meant run the avz and hijackthis scans as before, and attach their logs.


I apologise for my ignorance - and probably incompetence - on this and am very grateful for your help.
Nicola

You have attached the old log [I]virusinfo_syscheck.zip[/I]. You haven't to do it once more, if your problem solved.

hi there
this is the latest one - I ran it after your script ...
computer as slow as before alas.
best wishes
Nicola