Hi there, I'm not sure if I'm doing this right I haven't used your services before but they look impressive.

I believe my Windows XP system is running very poorly. I hear it reading/writing to the hard drive & just sit here & wait to get my turn thinking "what the heck is it doing?". It can take 30 to 45 seconds just to open a simple single page Excel document. Meanwhile, it's rattling away with all sorts of background activity. I'm sure it didn't used to be like this, what do think is happening.

I'm using Norton AV but some adware occassionally gets past that so I've used Trendmicro Housecall to scan & remove adware & tracking cookies. Do you think I have a hijack problem? Occasionally I'll get emails from my mail server saying that an email had failed & the details shown seem to indicate that I never sent an email to the address which failed. On the 15th I received an email from me to me with a Viagra/Cialis ad embedded that I of course never sent.

Can you pleases point me in the right direction to determine if I have a problem, what it is & how to rectify it.

Your input wil be much appreciated.

For starters read this post: http://www.d-a-l.com/help/showthread.php?t=32403

Then post a HijackThis log over in that section in a new thread. Please allow up to 24 hours for a reply.

If they give you an all clear come back to this thread and we can look further.