OK, i don't even know if i'm posting this in the right place... and i'm pretty low-tech, so i'll probably only understand half of what you are saying... lol

for quite sometime now i have been thinking i needed more ram, i have 1GB that was what the computer had when we bought it 3 years ago. what is happening is that when i'm surfing the net (Firefox 3.0.13) and i get 2 or more tabs open... sometimes even just the one... all of a sudden my computer will go from using 50% to 99% and then everything freezes up... sometimes it will drop back down to normal and i can resume activity, but usually not for long... long enough to close out the extra tabs, then it may work fine for a little while longer.... other times i will have to task manager to close the program/processes or reboot, and other times it freezes so bad for so long that i just have to cut the power to it(which i realize is less than ideal).

i was recently talking to a friend that is pretty educated in computers who says that even by todays standards 1GB ram should be more than enough to do what i do on this computer... mainly surfing the internet... and we don't often play too much media in the way of video or music. this friend seems to think that i have some malware hiding in my registry (which i have no idea what a registry is) even though all my virus/spyware scans come up clean.

the system i am using is as follows:

eMachine model: t5224
Intel® Pentium® D CPU 2.8GHz
1GB RAM

my OS is Vista Home Premium(build: 6002 service pack 2)

i have downloaded all MS updates.

Firefox is my preferred browser, but i have recently decided to try Chrome, and the computer seems to do better using it, i have only froze once or twice using it even with multiple tabs open. with Chrome it still seems that it uses a lot of RAM, but does't spike like that and freeze. i RARELY use IE so i dont really know if it happens there other than it runs Extremely slow all the time. so it appears to me that the problem is somehow related to Firefox, and i really need to get back to using it because Chrome is not compatible with my online college classes.

i also know that my computer is running to many programs at start up, but i dont know which ones its ok to disable.

any and all help will be greatly appreciated...

Thanks
~Syd

I work in a tech shop, and I uninstall Norton quite often. Once I've uninstalled it I can then remove the infections on the system. It's just from experience.

Your best bet is to ask the helper who assists you in checking your log. I personally use Avira Antivir for my antivirus and Malwarebyte's Antimalware for my antispyware. See if the helper agrees or recommends something different.

Cheers