Originally Posted by
LIH Prem
For the third time, did you try disabling all browser plug-ins? For IE, spybot will list BHOs in one of it's screens, which are similar to firefox add-ons. In FF, you can disable plug-ins from tools/add-ons.
-David
Oh cheers for that. I was so engrossed with the rest of the stuff (basically saving my data) that I totally overlooked it

It seems like the browsers are working more or less ok now....but the general system is as screwed up as ever (at least as far as booting is concerned).
my Firefox add-ons are as follows:
....... Plus
Download Statusbar
Forecastfox (for weather forecasts)
Do you reckon it's worth disabling them?