One option would be to run a scan in Safe Mode. If you've picked up an infection, maybe it's causing problems with the scan. You could also disable Trend temporarily, download and install a different antivirus program to see if it can perform the scan. There are many choices available and many of them are free. You didn't say how old the machine is, but you could be seeing the first signs of a hard drive failure. Have you experienced problems running any other programs?

pretty sure you have the dreaded antivirus xp infection.DO NOT click on any of the pop ups and DO NOT pay them any thing or give them credit card info. There are 3 programs you will need to run to get rid of this. It may take more but lets do this and see how it goes. Go get the free version of superantispyware install it update it run full scan then let it clean anything it finds. SUPERAntiSpyware you will need to also get the free malwarebytes and use it. Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop. * Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program. * At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish. * If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version. * Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan. * When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results. * Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and finally download and run this program Please download ATF Cleaner by Atribune from http://www.atribune.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=25 . Save it to your Desktop. Run ATF Cleaner * Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program. * Click Select All found at the bottom of the list. * Click the Empty Selected button. * Click Exit on the Main menu to close the program. * Shutdown/restart the computer. http://www.atribune.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=25 here is a good article about this type of infection. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/22/anatomy_of_a_hack/print.html Please follow those directions and let us know how you are doing.

For years I used the free ones, like Zone, and also the spyware ones, plus the free firewall. Then I tried Zone Alarm security suite, which worked super great for 5 mo. It had the firewall, spyware, and antivirus all in one item, which was nice. Then on one update, it made the machine go crazy, and I could not update it. We tried for 2 weeks with no success, and I could not use the pc. Finally it went in the shop, and the fellow said that the Zone S. Suite was conflicting with Windows programs. So it had to be removed. That happened in June, and I go on their site, to see how it is going on, and they are still having problems. They also refused to refund my money, which was over half a yr. left. Recently I put in Vipre, after much study. You can get a 15 day trial on it, and also the company has a firewall that is quite good. I bought the virus protection after the trial, and it also has spyware protection, and I love it. Also it uses the less amount of space on your pc, according to their chart on many of the virus protection plans. I had two professionals tell me that Vipre was the way to go, so I have had it now for several months. Darlene

I think it's important to remember at this time that the reason FREE AV and anti-malware products exist at all is that they are trying to get their foot in your door to try and sell you the PAID version. To that end, confusing and misleading claims about the offerings of competitors are the order of the day. If the claims about conflicts with Avira are true, I would be more suspicious of Avira than the others. I dropped Avira years ago because they were trying to force their "toolbar" on their users and forcing them to jump thru several hoops to get rid of it. They were also becoming very pushy about getting free users to become paid users. Looks like now I have another reason to cross it off my list entirely for my personal use, though if anyone did try Avira I'd be interested in hearing what they have to say about it.