Virus?

Hey, I’m having a bit of a computer emergency. Tonight as I was working with my internet open, a balloon popped up at the bottom right toolbar (where there are icons of the programs running), saying that I had spyware infection. And it tells you to click on the balloon for more information (which is common for other normal programs, as you probably know). Anyway, when I did, what looked like the official Security Center of my computer popped up. And another window outlining that I had a virus/spyware, etc. Can’t remember exactly. Anyway, it asked me to scan, and it looked so official, I did. It took maybe 5 minutes, and said I had several items. Trojans, cookies, etc. Then asked if I wanted to clean. I clicked yes. And a subscription screen came up with different $ options. Tried to close, another popped up saying “are you sure”, all that kinda crap, I closed 3 different windows before I was finally able to closeup everything.

At this point I was still able to relaunch my internet, but that spyware balloon kept popping up at the bottom right toolbar. I though I’d run my Ad Aware to clean it, because it’s worked very well before. I tried to launch, and it wouldn’t let me. Saying “Cannot launch this program because of infection”. But I tried to launch a random Acrobat document from the desktop, and it opened it no problem. It also let me launch my internet browser. So I went to Ad aware.com, and downloaded another fresh copy of the program to my desktop. Tried to launch it, same thing. Then I tried it again, but instead of saving to the computer, I just ran it straight from the website. In the middle of the download, my computer shut down. Then restarted. My special password screen came up as usually does when starting up (I have full disc encryption software that requires a password), I enter the password. Then a black screen comes on with some white text. Saying the computer was shut down improperly, and some files might be damaged, etc. “Which would I like to do”? Then it gives options: start in safe mode, start with connectivity, start at point with last settings that worked properly, or start normally (though I can’t remember if these were ALL of the options given). I tried all of the above, and every time it would go black, then it would shut down and start all over again. Restart, I enter my encryption password, then the black screen comes on with the options, I choose, and it all starts over again.

So basically it’s a non-stop cycle, and I can’t boot up my computer to do anything.

Thought I’d touch base with you to see if there’s anything simple I would be able to do (like a combination of keys at that black screen to at least get thru to boot up Ad aware, or other software to clean it out). I remember sometimes it’s possible to get to the C prompt in MS DOS, then do things manually from there.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Ivan