Can anyone point me in the direction of a reputable (and preferably cheap) spyware website as the free software available isn't shifting my problem?

Have you tried 'AdAware'?

i find its pretty good and its free for personal use...
you can purches it though...

to download it search on google or any search engine for:

adaware - lavasoft

you should find it easy enough and you can downlaod it from them...
hope this helps!

Chris

spybot is another good one. you say you've tried the free ones? which ones have you tried and what is your problem?

Yes i've tried adware. I have a malware virus and some other trojans i think. AVG from grisoft can't fix the problem nor can mcafee. The only other virus checkers i've managed to detect this with only have a free scan and i would have to buy the software to complete removal. Everyone time I try to install Spybot, my browser shuts down. Getting very frustrated...

Have you tried this online one, its free, you just agree to install the scan when it pops up and if it finds stuff it will get rid of it. http://www.spywareinfo.com/xscan.php

Also if you can tell us what these scans you ran have found we can find the fixes for them.

Right well that scan didn't find anything. I downloaded and used a program called Xoftspy which detected the following problem twice:

Vendor: WINPUP 32 Type: REGISTRY KEY Category: MALWARE

I would then have to pay for the full software to remove these.

Then with AVG from grisoft I found the following:

Trojan horse BackDoor.Hacdef.C
Found in C:\System Volume Information\_restore{B37680B2-BA0A-4E5D-BF30-83E44C588624}\RP2\A0003960.sys
Then the same thing again found changing to \RP23\A0005070.sys (if this info. is relevant) at the end.

Trojan horse BackDoor.Hacdef.C
Found in C:\WINDOWS\hxdefdrv.sys

Trojan horse BackDoor.Hacdef.C
Found in C:\SYSTEM~1\_RESTO~\RP21\A0003960.sys

AVG attempts to remove all of these and, despite telling me it has done so, they always resurface. Might be something to do with an XP error message during the removal process where it says:

NT On-Access Scanner service has encountered a problem and needs to close...

Quite a lot of problems methinks. I'm considering backing up everything I need and getting my recovery CDs out. Unless someone has a fix...?

Ok, apparently spybot and ad-aware wont detect winpup but Bazooka will and its free. http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/

As far as Hacdef C your best bet is to download Hijack this, Put it in its own folder, close all programs you have open and run hijack. When its run, save the log file and post it here so someone can tell you which things need to be fixed.

I just went through basically the same thing..had 2 spywares running, plus AVG and I got a backdoor trojan...from my understanding, the antivirus software wouldn't pick it up until it was already in there and causing chaos..it would catch it, the quarantine it and send it in the vault..I just couldn't get rid of them darn trojans...I finally had to go and reformat my system through the manufactuers instrctions, cause my xp was already installed on this computer, then completely back everything up and restore..I've done that, and got an updated norton, that picks up all the adware/spyware..since then, my spyware/adware programs dont' pick up anything...those backdoor trojans can be a nightmare...I didn't want to restore my computer, but it was the only thing left to do, I had tried and done everything else I could...

Disable system restore then scan with AVG then when you get the all clear turn system restore back on, then follow the advice about posting a HijackThis log.

If I were you, I'd also download and install Sygate Personal Firewall after you've cleaned up your machine. Or failing that, download the Beta version of XP service pack 2 and use the M$ firewall - it ain't great, but with SP2 its a little bit better than nothing. And at least service pack 2 will patch up some of your security holes