Blaster woes?

[deep rest]

I'd be very grateful for some advice on problems I'm having.
Sequence of events:
Discovered Dialer.6.G Trojan, this caused very slow operation and wasn't removable so decided on format.
After reinstalling XP, foolishing went on-line without a firewall or anti-virus, downloaed avg - nearly, although it worked partly and found lovsan a worm, this then became ms laugh and then ms blast.
I searched for the viruses and deleted them manually, then ran avg which found them and "Healed" them, or so it said...
I still got the minute countdowns to restart, especially when I tried deleting lots of files running in task manager headed svchost and svcmgnt (Which had tried to contact strange named websites from the system32 folder, after I had got Sygate firewall installed).
These files running cause 100% CPU usage and obviously slow operation, I'm not allowed to install patches or some removal tools too, although I did get the Symantec one to run but it failed to spot anything.
Is the anwer a simple reformat but protecting myself before going on-line again or has it caused damage or could it be inhabiting other areas of my pc?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[glc]

I'd reformat again, and this time, enable the XP firewall before you connect to the Internet. If you have an "always on" cable or DSL, enable the firewall before you even plug the cable into your nic.

[bloodwrath]

go to my site( see below)
its has 3 easy steps to remove the blaster and Welcha worms
look under the windows XP section

[deep rest]

I've done the format and been online using AVG, Norton firewall and anti-virus and Sygate firewall and all's well so far.
Thanks for your advice, sorry if it was an obvious cure but I'd heard of rebuilds ammounting from Blaster infections.

[ghost2003]

Did you say you have 2 antiviruses and 2 firewalls? That isint good, 1 is enought and having more could be worse. And the fact that norton is one of them doesnt help.1 of each is all you need. Plus thats got to steal a hell of alot of recources, norton is a BIG recource hogg.

[deep rest]

I did think that, I think I'll remove the Norton firewall but keep the anti-virus as I've seen it running with AVG with no problems.

[glc]

You only want ONE of your antiviruses running in the background - either Norton autoprotect OR AVG Resident Shield. If you are running a 3rd party firewall, disable the XP firewall.

[deep rest]

I've already got the XP firewall switched off, but I'll do as you say on one of the anti-virus packages. Which do you prefer out of interest, AVG free or Norton, there seems to be conflicts of interest.
Many thanks.

[ghost2003]

Norton uses much more recources and causes problems for some people(like me). But the problem I have with AVG is that the on-access scanner is report only.

[glc]

I would trust Norton 2003 fully if it runs well on your system. Nobody has ever complained about Norton being a poor virus detector, just a system hog - and Norton 2004 is a worse hog.

[deep rest]

After getting rid of the Blaster virus I had been back on line a very short time (Not dubious sites) and I was hit with another three viruses, treatable albeit.
Do you think I might have a weekness somewhere, I have still got the AVG and Norton running (Updated) and Sygate firewall. One of the viruses (Startpage) apparently changed something on my O/S, I was told to insert my XP disc, which I did, but it wasn't recognised. The pc seems to be running fine though, and pretty quick.
Thanks very much!

[glc]

I hate to sound cynical, but using non-Microsoft browsers and email clients will cut down a lot of these problems.

[deep rest]

I was thinking of trying a new browser when the problems first occured (I though they were I/E based), maybe a light one like Mozilla Firefox....?
My I/E still doesn't seem to be right, sometimes it's fast and sometimes it hangs up, shutting it down and then immediately starting back up often does the trick. Also, on the MS site I can download updates but it can't seem to install them - just carries on indefinitely.