Originally posted by morselady:
It was not a virus because when I booted up this morning my computer dialled right into MacAfee as usual and I was able to download an update and do an online scan of my entire hard disk and no virus found. I do remember some weeks ago when my ISP NTL had an email problem some people could not run their AV programs. I will purchase Norton so I can run virus scan offline and maybe go back to BT.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

Angie
Some forms of the hybis virus will also block access to AV sites. Our favorite AV of choice is Innoculate from computer Associates and it is free. Your HP makes it a little more difficult to remove certain viruses due to the fact that it uses a Sector Bios. Dont bother with NAV as the only thing they have going is their boot disk. As has been stated Innoculate PE which is free or F-Prot are the best on the market. I dont know which HP you have but your problem is not unique to you. We had a user with a new Hp that was having a problem similar to yours plus many other stability issues but we were able to fix him permenantly. We installed an A-Bit mother board and he has never been happier. Find a good reliable tech and ask his thiughts before getting a new PC. Good Luck