i have 2 PC's & 1 Laptop. we'll call them PC, BC & LT
the problem is with LT.

PC is connected wirelessly. BC is wired to the router. LT is wireless with Atheros AR5004G built in.
i downloaded this http://pcpitstop.com/store/exterminate.asp on the LT. ran the scan and uninstalled it because it didn't remove the spyware.
after that the LT started acting up. i couldn't search for the word spyware, couldn't click the category 'anti-virus & spyware downloads' @ download.com & couldn't do anything with the word spyware, couldn't even install anti-spyware programs downloaded from the other 2 PC's. Everytime I tried, the browsers [IE, CrazyBrowser & Firefox] would close by themselves. Tried to run scans, but the scanners would close automatically also.

so we thought to do a factory restart restoring it from out of box state. finished that. now it doesn't want to connect to the internet. checked PC & BC to see if they were still able to connect. internet shows up fine except for LT. when LT is connected with the Ethernet cable, Internet is fine; webpages show up. but once disconnected, and using the wifi, internet doesn't show up.

The wifi is ON and I have set the settings on it. WiFi does read the router and says it's Excellent with all the bars lit green. but internet still doesn't show up.
It has worked just a couple of hours ago just before installing that program from PC Pitstop. so we did the fatcory restart again thinking we might have missed something, but still Nothing.

I tried using the disc again to install drivers for the Atheros AR5004G.
also tried downloading a driver for it from the internet using the other PC's. That didn't work either.

even though the signal is excellent, i can't even access the router from the LT. accessing router from the 2 PC's is good.

so any help would be greatly appreciated!

XPHomeSP2

Try performing an XP repair:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

thank you for replying i will try that out.