Ok...I havent had any issues with my cpu until like 2 weeks ago. I booted up one day, and the desktop wouldnt load, all i could see was a blank background. So i restarted..same thing. As im at that screen, i ctrl alt delete, and manualy open every program i want run, which sucks, no task bar, nothing. Then i try doing explorer.exe. The weirdest thing happend. What looked to be like a irc window, poped up, and had all these weird user names on the side, which looked like bots or something, and had a few ips listed in the window. I tried taking a screen shot, but my cpu was so messed up i couldnt even do that. So i finaly found my win2k cd, reformatted, and everything was back to normal. I go to install irc, after reformating, and if your familiar with irc, when you /whois your self or anyone for that matter it lists your personal info, etc. Under my name it says: |xXx|3392@blahblahblah. I was baffled as to why it said that xXx part because i never typed that in. So i did a quick virus scan, and it found a whooping 2,000 files. And the only program i installed was irc and aim, not kazaa or anything like that. So i reformated for a 2nd time, and that same xXx thing comes up for irc, but right after i installed irc and aim, i got a copy of ZoneAlarm (great program), and have been using that lately. It has already blocked 513 intrusions since install (about a week), and 47 of them have been high-rated. But tonight, a window poped up and asked if i wanted to grant it premission to the internet. (thats what zonealarm does it will ask u if u want certain programs to access the net). I clicked yes thinking it was another application i was running, and all of a sudden i started lagging really bad. It poped up again and this time i clicked No. The program ended up being ping.exe So i have no idea what that is or what anything else is. lease give me some advice/help as to what i should do, i am by no means a computer expert, so your help would be greatly apreciated as to how i can get my cpu safe/clean again. Thanks