[Nomad84]

I also feel that some sort of malicious software is most likely. He uses Firefox, but the rest of my family refuses to use anything but IE. Also, he said my sister had been installing some games that she got online, so I bet it's related to that. He ran Spybot from safemode and got rid of one or two things, but it still won't boot except for safemode. I had Adaware on there also, but it was gone when I tried to tell him where it was. The Lavasoft folder was still present in Program Files, but it was empty. I'm pretty sure he said AVG didn't turn up anything either, but the definitions probably haven't been updated in a while. As far as CompUSA or similar, won't happen. If he can't get it working, he'll just have to wait until next time I'm home. That should be in a week or two since I have to help my sister move soon. He's dying for a computer of his own so he doesn't have to deal with this crap.

That machine needs a fresh install of windows bad, but I never have the time to deal with it when I'm home. Maybe that will be a project for Christmas break.

So is it pretty much down to AVG/Adaware/Spybot and the boot CD? When I get home, could I try installing Windows over the top of the current installation without a format to try to repair any damaged files? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!