What the hell is wrong with my computer?

[Esuohlim]

For the last two or three months now, my computer has been acting up.

It freezes sometimes when you try to open more than one program at a time. It goes so goddamn slow that it sometimes can't even keep up with typing, so when I type something like "Sample phrase" it'll appear like "Smpl phse".

Also, I'm getting a considerable amount of Explorer "Illegal Operations" which either freeze my computer or give me the blue error screen where you need to Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

So, what seems to be the problem? My computer never used to be like this.

[Perfect Suspect]

There might be too much shit on your computer causing an overload, delete some useless stuff then see if the problems continue.

[Ninjavenom]

Virus.

[Esuohlim]

I'm with Ninjavenom on this one, because I've cleared tons of stuff any no luck.

So what kind of virus is it and how do I get rid of it?

If there is a way.

[whoreable]

Format. No seriously. It is my cure all solution.

[mew barios]

here is a post by me.

i've had problems like this myself, not as bad as you're describing, but maybe this will help.

all windows versions run many useless and sometimes harmful programs at startup since the moment it's installed. i still use 98, so i'm not sure how this works for other versions, but typing msconfig in the run box on the start menu, and clicking on the 'startup' tab brings up a nice list of startup programs in the registry. go to a site like http://afsg.whatzit-inc.com/pc_performance/tasklist.htm and look up anything that looks suspicious or just inexplicable, and find out if you'd be better off without it. that solves most of my crashing problems.

get a program like adaware or spybot or the like. http://www.lavasoft.de/ that generally clears out a lot of additional crap you don't need.

umm. if it's a virus i don't know. i sometimes get trial of norton when they come out with a new version. http://www.norton.com/ i've never had a comp that was virus infected. i'm not sure what to tell you there. o.o

ok that's all.

[Zbu Manowar]

Symentec has an online virus scanner I've used to good effect.