Here is where I think I am... There are no more updates except for a few programs relating to internet explorer which I am not using. There is one suggestion that I update to a newer version of xp. I will put this on hold for now. I went back to the microsoft website to check on the removal tool capabilities. The worm blaster is an alias of msblast. So I do not have a virus at least as far as microsoft is telling me. One solution posted on a link from the win32 host process link that was suggested earlier was that the problem was simply a driver problem. So I have my driver installation disk in hand. I could reinstall it... question is do I have to change the boot up procedure to do it or just stick it in and let it fly. I don't see that this would hurt in any way unless other vendors modify drivers already on the system. I have no printer or scanner and only 4 or 5 outside vendor packages. The other approach would be to determine the state of my drivers currently on the system. I am not sure how I do that. One factor I rechecked today. When I connect to the internet my selection on control panel/internet connections/ is changed to ... never dial a connection. When I disconnect from the internet I can sign back on but cannot connect to any web page. I have to bring up the control panel... and change the choice to... always use my default number. The funny thing is that I checked my wife's computer (same as mine only newer with identical software)and her choice always is... never dial a connection yet she never has a problem reconnecting to the internet. I currently am using a dial up connection. Thanks

Hum, update but not sure what it all means yet. After buying a 2.5" external enclosure to run my notebook HDD as an external drive on another computer I was able to recover data that wasn't backed up and was in my Shared Folder, pictures and the like, but I was not able to access anything protected by administrative login requirement. But, emboldened by the recovery of some important information I reinstalled the HDD in the notebook and tried to boot again, noting I had discovered that when one changes the BOIS to boot first from the CD ROM one must input a F1 keystroke to start the boot, and if one waits the process defaults to the HDD, which booted slowly but almost normally. Main surface problem the desktop came up troubled with the white background. This would not allow me to recover my original desktop, but no problem the system worked anyway. I was able to capture my Thunderbird Folder and when I substituted that into my new notebook's TB (subject of another thread on having problems with moving mail from one TB to a TB on another computer) I got a complete recovery of my TB history/file/directory. Message here to me is to backup TB an the TB Folder level, not at the Mail folder level. I did then uninstall Acrobat Professional 7.0.8 which had just been updated before the slow crash, and I noted that both the installation of the Acrobat update and the uninstall requires that my external back-up HDD be connected...this was not intended and may have had something to do with the crash problem. I'm still working on the desktop problem and note that scan disk on the troubled notebook does report the HDD check good, but it does not show the details: number of sectors, uses, unused..

Owbist, I am using the MSE (MS security essentials) anti virus program... the machine (OS) is a vista, but I think MSE turns off the defender program which I believe is ( or was ) the firewall I could be wrong. Does anyone know for sure that there is a firewall up and running with the MSE in place ? Damccoy, I sorta know that certain sites can be a problem ..my concern is to have something in place to at least give me an edge for protection, I can self govern myself. And I do a scan for malware etc at least once a week. My question is do I have a firewall in place now even if I run MSE ???

Maybe the first thing I would do .. Go into the device manager(right click myComputer & select properties) and look for yellow exclamation or red stop errors. While there under Network Adapters you should see two adapters; One will be your wireless adapter and it probably says 802.11b/g/n and manufacturer name. The other network adapter should say something about 'Ethernet adapter and manufacturer name. Double click the Ethernet adapter and then look around for probably a check box that says something about Disable this device. I would disable that ethernet adapter because you aren't using it... that will stop that Network Cable Unplugged message,,, and might possibly be the conflict - if so you might get lucky and your wifi will connect after a reboot. Ummm, what else might you try. The Event logs in your computer management window might give you a hint what's wrong... thats accessable by right clicking myComputer and select Manage. You say you never have added hardware... hardware that would use an irq would be things like a portable hard drive, a flash memory card, anything usb, a pc-card slot device, a seperate monitor. Try unplugging things attached one by one to see if one of those might be causing the conflict. Hopefully its not your wifi card, but if after trying to eliminate the conflict and nothing else hardware wise stops the error message maybe you could disable the wifi adapter in Device Manager and then if the error message instantly goes away that would be a good indication its bumm or maybe rolling back or reinstalling the driver might fix it.