why are my laptop & firefox acting weird

[Throbbing Angel]

hey hey

Dell inspirion 1501 dual core AMD laptop running XP
Firefox 2.something is the default browser
2 profiles set up-both as admin

It is my wifes machine, so I use portableapps from a USB stick most of the time for my browser, thunderbird, office apps etc

Over the last week it has started slowing down, the screen and taskbar peridoically have bits blacked out, can't find the router etc
and
firefox, which is set up to block popups is now letting crap through, even though it is still set up NOT to do so random pages for loans, win a laptop/holiday etc/mobile phone downloads etc etc etc


running AVG which finds n'owt and Ad-Aware which seems to lock up when used.

So, I booted it into safe mode and ran avg (all fine) and then AdAware which again locked up.


Any suggestions as what to do next?

 

[boskysquelch]

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
#
try this

this kinda thang did use to happen with messenger.exe.. go into Services & disable the non MSN one<<<inaccurate description but I'm not on XP atm & I'm sure you could Google to see that one.

You using ABP for blocking pop-ups?

 

[Throbbing Angel]

ABP?

adaware just ran ok and found 26 tracking cookies, but that is n'owt new and doesn't explain the change in behaviour
will give housecall a go
well remembered

 

[boskysquelch]

ABP?

Adblock Plus...it's an extension/Add On...I used ABP, Flashblock & No Script.

 

[Throbbing Angel]

ahhh right

I'll pay mozilla avisit after housecall has finished bosk, cheers muchly

 

[Throbbing Angel]

cheers fellah
ABP is f'kin great

a combo of housecall, ClamWin and AVG seems to have rooted out all the crap that was there
which
oddly
was in what I would call trusted downloads, like an install of Opera USB for example
quite odd

cheers for the pointers bosk