sorry radders, thats all i do in these situations.

remove partition, reinstate partition, format and install xp fresh.

i do this bi-monthly anyway, can notice a difference then, cant even begin to imagine what some peoples machines are like after 12+months

even if kept tidy, windows has a way of building up temporary files and starting strange services that have an impact on speed/reliability.

radders

with some virus's, they actually start their own service so that they are immune to even updated virus-killers.

have a good read up on the virus, do a search on google, see if it starts its own service etc, or stays resident in memory.

have you tried starting up in safe mode (f8 on bootup) and then removing it?

good luck fella