Posting this as a follow up just for informational purposes. The problem seemed to be that for some reason there are two video adapters and two monitors (both identical) that show up in the device manager. Why? I have no idea. If I uninstall the "extra" set, they just re-appear. If I simply disable them, they stay disabled and I do not experience the blurry display. I spent months trying to track down the problem as I just had a gut feeling that the problem was not with the LCD display itself- I upgraded drivers, downgraded drivers, etc. I am not sure what made me notice the two entries in the Device Manager, but I think I have solved my problem.

yes the AVG8 beta sp1 update was just recently released to help fix some of the problems with AVG8. They are suggesting the update. Also following these directions from their faq is helping. How to disable the AVG add-on in my Internet Browser? AVG 8.0 Free Edition contains a plugin for scanning of search results in Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines. This plugin (AVG SafeSearch) is designed for MS Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox Internet browsers. If you would like to disable it kindly proceed as follows: 1. Internet Explorer: * Run Internet Explorer. * Choose the Internet Options from the Tools menu. * Switch on the Programs tab. * Click on the Manage add-ons button. * Select the AVG Safe Search add-on. * Tick in the Disable option at the bottom of this window. * Confirm changes by clicking on the OK button. * Close Internet Explorer and run it again. 2. Mozilla Firefox: * Run Mozilla Firefox. * Choose the Add-ons option from the Tools menu. * Select the AVG Safe Search add-on and click on the Disable button. * Close Mozilla Firefox and run it again. Note: AVG add-ons cannot be used with Mozilla Firefox 3 (beta) at the moment. Was this FAQ helpful to you? : 1338: How to install AVG without LinkScanner If you wish to install AVG 8.0 Free Edition without the LinkScanner component, or uninstall this component from your program, please proceed as follows: * Download the AVG 8.0 Free Edition installation package from our website. * Run the installation with the parameters /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch. One way to achieve this is to: o save the AVG Free installation file directly to disk C:\ o open menu Start -> Run o type c:\avg_free_stf_*.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch * The installation will be started, and AVG will be installed without the LinkScanner component. http://free.grisoft.com/ww.faq.num-1241#faq_1241 Here is a link that might be useful: AVG8 update info

I guess this is why it's good not to put all one's eggs in one basket, but use different scans of each type when reasonable (i.e. using online AV scans in addition to using one's preferred full-time AV program). Re: the PC Mag article(s): FWIW, Rubenking praised MBAM -- and I use it myself ! -- but it didn't find the four trojans that the ESET scan did. And my own free Avira AV scan didn't find them either. I'm not sure where trojans fall category-wise: malware or viruses. Or something else. But whatever programs should find them (av or anti-malware), mine didn't. :-( Perhaps I should have also tried AVG just to see if its results would have been better, but I was naturally more concerned with getting rid of whatever was in my computer than with doing AV, anti-malware tests. ;-) So my (albeit limited) experience of having ESET find and remove 4 trojans that MBAM and Avira missed, at least makes me lean in the direction of trusting ESET for future supplementary AV scan purposes. And, of course, I'll try the Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool again if necessary. (Since I ran it after the ESET scan, I have no idea if it would have found and removed the 4 trojans as well. And I hope I never have cause to find out in the future !!)

One thing you could try is to use another computer (not the infected one) to download an antivirus program that would be burned onto a CD. You would then boot from this CD, not the infected computer's hard drive. Hopefully, you could then clean the infection. You would have to download a .iso file (an image), and you'd then need software that will "burn the image", not just copy file, onto a CD. Then when you boot the infected machine, bring up the boot menu before it goes into Windows (usually by pressing F12), insert the CD and tell it to boot the CD instead of the hard drive. Then, follow instructions. The site below is only one suggestion and I have not used any of the programs listed. You could probably search and find other similar sites. If this method doesn't work for you, the alternatives I know of would be to either remove the hard drive and install it as a slave in another machine to clean it, or format the infected hard drive and reinstall Windows. Be advised my knowledge is limited, and I expect others will have useful suggestions. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: Free Antivirus and Rescue CD's