Processes will not go away!?

[kisk]

This problem started about a week ago. I'll be running a few apps and when I try to exit them, they won't go away. Actually, some times they go away(from view on the desktop) and sometimes they don't -- but either way, they still show up in my process list.

Then if I try to kill the process, it still won't go away. It does sort of a chain reaction too... once one app starts to do it, several follow about a minute later. And once it has started doing that my computer will not restart; I have to manually turn it off, then back on.

The programs so far that have done this are AOL, Newsbin Pro, Photoshop7, The Cleaner, Norton Antivirus, Kazaa, WinAmp, WinRAR and sometimes certain folders.

I *did* just install a new DVD burner (Sony DVD+/-RW DRU-500A) -- its an external USB. Could this drive be causing the problems? Bad drivers/Firmware?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-- kisk

[mike breck]

What Windows version?

As you have Kazaa installed, run an up-to-date virus scan and then use one of the programs to to check for malware

AD-aware

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

or Spybot

http://patrick.kolla.de/spybotsd.html

If the system is clean, then prevent all these programs from running at startup by using the System Configuration Utility

Start>Run and type MSCONFIG

Go to the startup tab and disable all these startup programs (applications).

Then enable each one, one-at-a-time and see if you can endtask them properly. That should help you ID the program that is causing the problem.

HTH