[LPDad]

(I changed the thread title to hopefully get more people to help)

I am not very savvy on windowsME problems, but I had something similar happen to my wife's Win98 puter a long time ago. It was caused by a file corruption in the windows operating system and the only way to really fix it was to back up our data files and do a complete format and reinstall. (We had one of those stupid compaq restore discs, so I borrowed a 98 disc and tried to just reload windows but it did not really fix the problem--I messed with it for about a week trying different things but it was a waste of my time.-- Once I did the reformat/reinstall everything worked fine again.)

Now all of my puters are running WinXP which is a much more stable operating system.

If you do not find a virus, then I fear your best solution is to back up what you can and start over from scratch with a clean system.
sorry I don't have any better suggestions but you could spend a few hours backing up your data, reformat, and reloading windows OR you could spend literally days and day trying to locate the problem. (and It already sounds like you have had enough frustration)