I did that essexboy but when I rebooted and got to the windows log on screen the mouse pointer wouldn’t move so I couldn’t click the username icon to log on.
Cancel that, a second reboot and I am at the desktop. The system is still slow so I will go onto the final part.
OK lets have a quick skegg at the MBR
Download aswMBR.exe ( 1.8mb ) to your desktop.
Double click the aswMBR.exe to run it Click the “Scan” button to start scan
http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee362/Essexboy3/aswMBR%20shots/aswMBRScan.gif
On completion of the scan click save log, save it to your desktop and post in your next reply
http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee362/Essexboy3/aswMBR%20shots/aswMBRsavelog.gif
Does that program need Avast mate ? I did install it but had to uninstall because it wouldn’t work properly.
Nope it is standalone
Ok thanks. Here is the report, sorry it took a while but it’s that slow. I have to move the mouse pad a bit at a time to wait for pointer to catch up 
OK that confirms the no malware scenario… So what drivers are still running even on a clean boot ?
Well I located a McAfee firewall driver still running so it may be worthwhile uninstalling that there are also remanants of Norton
I have uninstalled both of those mate using the control panel so not sure why they are still hanging around.
Is it possible to get rid of them totally ?
Download and run the McAffee tool from here http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe
Download and run the Norton tool from here https://www-secure.symantec.com/norton-support/jsp/help-solutions.jsp?lg=english&ct=united+states&docid=20080710133834EN&product=home&version=1&pvid=f-home
Reboot on completion of each run
Once done let me know if there is an improvement
Ok I will try that now thanks again. I am glad it’s not infected but it’s driving me nuts wondering what it could be.
It appears to be a kernel driver that is being used within normal windows - these are generaly AV/Firewall drivers and they are not disabled with a clean boot
Ok here’s the latest status. I ran the McAfee removal tool but that came up with an error message and failed. The Norton removal tool seems to have done it’s job ok.
Here’s the thing though, whilst waiting for those I was doing a bit of googling and found this -
Just finished repairing an Acer 3500 which was freezing on startup and running very slow, mouse and keypad would stop responding. To shut it down I had to remove the power cord and battery. It would start in safe mode without any problems. The following fixed the problem. Start in Safe Mode. Open Device Manager and expand Batteries. Disable the entry "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery". Close and restart notebook in normal mode. Hope that corrects the problem it did for me.So thought what the heck and tried it, rebooted and now everything [b]seems[/b] to be normal. :o
Now that is neat - I would never have thought of associating the battery with the problem
Once you are happy let me know and I will remove my tools and tidy up ;D
I know it’s mental isn’t it ? Installed Avast fine and just going to go look at turning on the startup things one by one to make sure everythings back to normal, fingers crossed.
Thanks again for all your time and advice.
No problem - it is the way for me to learn new things