It does sound like spyware. Christmas is a big time for viruses. 3 things I use and all are free and at download.com make sure it is the free ones. IE most downloaded. AVG antivirus adaware spyware remover Zone alarm firewall These 3 are much better than any one all in one pay program. I have done networks and computer since DOS. These will rid and stop computer Trojans, spyware, viruses, hackers and 99.9% of the external computer programs from internet access.. Nothing can protect from human error but restore points. Jim

yes it will have a pop up down by the clock, be sure you do not have yours in the hidden icons thing if you do you can move it down onto the bar so you can see it better. Just make sure when you make your choice you pick the one that says notify me do not install or something like that.

I surprisingly ran into this same issue. I've called HP before, the first time being when i took my new Pavilion Slimline out of the box and the hard drive was not being recognised. I called and was immediately told that it was no longer under warranty. I said i had just bought it about 4 hours ago at a major retailer. I was told it didn't matter, apparently it was an older model that was on the store shelves for some time now. Four calls and three hours later my computer was working, sort of. I had a few calls in the past 9 months, usually for not booting properly or at all. I'm still waiting for recovery discs from about 9 months ago. Last night i came home and my computer was frozen. I had to reboot it. It ran the CHKDSK (again) and afterwards i was missing about 100GB of data. I called HP today. After he said his greeting i opened with "pending hard drive failure". There was no talk of recovery discs. He had me run the hardware diagnostics. Surface scan : HD535-2W. The fun lies in finding a service location in Calgary. He said they had service centres & partners EVERYWHERE. Their server was offline so we couldn't get it from their website. He gave me businesses to call. In a city of over 1000000 people you'd think there would be SOMEWHERE i could go to have the hard drive replaced. He was very helpful. I just wish their computers were too. It would save me all of these calls, from which i am taking a break. This would be the first time i got someone who really listened to me too. It's really nice when that happens.

STOP: 0x00000050 suggests a video card driver may be at fault. Ever updated your video driver? If you do not know what video card you have click Start/Control panel/System/Hardware/Device manager. Now look down the list and double click on Display adaptors. You can then go to the appropriate site and see if updated drivers are available for your machine. Have you been inside the case or moved the tower at all? Check the video cable is securely fastened at both ends. If you have a separate video card as opposed to built into the motherboard ensure it is seated properly AFTER shutting down, removing the power cable from the rear and resting you bare hand or arm on the metal case frame to ground yourself.