The computer is still rebooting, and my USB, Firewire & PS2 mouse connectors still failing.

I ran Spybot (with the external drive attached) and no infections were found. Ad-Aware 2007 Smart Scan found cookies, but nothing else, with the external drive attached. I tried to run the full scan twice, and it found 4 infections (probably minor) before it rebooted. I’m sure if I ran it without the external drive attached, it would complete okay, but I’m out-of-time for now (out-of-town until Tuesday).

I think I'll still buy a cheap hard drive, disconnect all hard drives to my computer, and install the new drive with XP, and see if it still reboots. I'm sure that it will, as it really looks now like I've got a hardware failure, right?

I’m really grateful for all your help with the viruses. As long as I’m virus free, I’ll feel safe swapping drives from this computer to another when the motherboard completely fails. That should be safe, right? A motherboard failure won’t affect data stored on my hard drives, will it? I’ve been worried about losing data, or infecting a new computer.

I may look to replace my motherboard (and maybe power supply), but I’ve heard there are compatibility problems with that (regarding the fan, etc).

If you’ve got further tests for me to run let me know, and I’ll attempt them once I’m back home. I want to keep this computer virus free. Of the various malware programs you’ve had me run, if there are any I should particularly keep using (besides AVG anti-virus, Spybot & Ad-Aware 2007) let me know.

Thanks again,

Russell