Weird problem with sisters PC...

[CrazeD]

So, I encountered a problem I've never seen before. My dad gave my sister his old PC, put Windows XP SP2 on, and off she went. She had me install some games on it because it gave her some DX errors (had to update it). While I was doing that, I kept noticing that things were...well, odd. It's hard for me to describe all of what it is doing.

Basically, you can't drag icons on the desktop. They return to their original place. Every like 10 seconds of using Firefox 3, it freezes and you can't click anything on Firefox. Yet, simply minimizing it then restoring it will fix the issue for another 10-20 seconds. Then, stuff will freeze in explorer itself. Can't bring up the task bar, can't open icons...I have to hit the windows key to bring the task bar up, or bring up the task manager then close it before anything will work.

I have a small hunch that it could possibly be FF3, but I have several other PC's using FF3 and tons of friends with it with no similar issues at all.

I just did a fresh format 2 days ago and it was doing it again a little while after formatting.

The specs:
Antec 450W something-a-rather PSU
Abit UL8 mobo
2x1GB Corsair XMS DDR400
ATi X850XT 256mb AGP
AMD x2 4400+ Toledo

Keep in mind this computer was working 100% fine like 5 months ago when my dad had it, before building his new one.

Any ideas?

 

[philbar71]

virus possibly?

 

[CrazeD]

That's what I thought initially. I downloaded Avast and Spybot Search & Destroy. Apart from a few spyware cookies, they found nothing. The first time it happened, it was freshly formatted about two weeks prior.

The second time, it was the same night I formatted it. Unless Mozilla.com, Major Geeks, and AMD's site suddenly got stricken with viruses...I think it's clean.

EDIT: Although, it did seem to start occurring when I installed FF3. I'm not sure if that's coincidence or not. I don't see how a browser would affect anything when it isn't even running. I was kind of wondering if anyone has heard of this happening with FF3. I personally don't use FF3, I prefer FF2. I might try uninstalling FF3 and installing FF2 or Opera and see if that fixes, unless someone gives me a better direction.