A online virus scan might help .
like this one .
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

We checked him for "nasties" in the spyware section. He was clean, so I don't think it is a virus causing the problems.

His thread: http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread42675.html

I would try a system restore. SOunds like registry corruption.

I'm a girl!

As for a system restore, I seemed to have lost a lot of my restore points due to a spyware I recently had, but I have tried restoring it to the furthest point I have which was a few days before my pc messed up but the problem still remains

Open the Event Viewer utility in your Administrative Tools control panel and look through your System and Application logs for entries flagged with "Error" or "Warning". Double-clicking on such an entry will open a properties window with more detailed information on the error; post the details from a representative sample of some of the different error messages (please don't post duplicates or flood us with the entire logs). To do so:

In the Properties window of a given entry, click on the button with the graphic of two pieces of paper on it; the button is at the right of the window just below the up arrow/down arrow buttons. You won't see anything happen when you click the button, but it will copy all of the details to the Windows clipboard. You can then paste the details into your next post here.

I'm afraid I'm not able to open control panel either, when I try, the icons on the desktop disappear as well as my task bar and I'm left with my background for a few seconds and then everything reappears.

I tried going to start, run, control.exe (I'm not sure if that's the correct way of accessing control panel through that method) but the same thing happened

What I've noticed is that if I try to neaten out my desktop by doing auto arrange for all the icons on my desktop (because I got rid of some stuff and was left with gaps here and there) after trying to access 'my computer' and after everything disappears and reappears, the icons reappear in their previous positions before I did auto arrange. I'm not sure whether that means anything but I thought I'd include that just incase

Try Start, Run, eventvwr.msc instead.

Some errors from application:


Event Type: Error
Event Source: EventSystem
Event Category: (50)
Event ID: 4609
Date: 04/04/2006
Time: 20:11:33
User: N/A
Computer: ANT
Description:
The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal processing. HRESULT was C0000005 from line 44 of d:\qxp_slp\com\com1x\src\events\tier1\eventsystemobj.cpp. Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services to report this error.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.



Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 02/11/2005
Time: 03:07:49
User: N/A
Computer: ANT
Description:
Hanging application mghtml.exe, version 4.0.0.67, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67 ion Hang
0010: 20 20 6d 67 68 74 6d 6c mghtml
0018: 2e 65 78 65 20 34 2e 30 .exe 4.0
0020: 2e 30 2e 36 37 20 69 6e .0.67 in
0028: 20 68 75 6e 67 61 70 70 hungapp
0030: 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 0.0.0.0
0038: 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73 at offs
0040: 65 74 20 30 30 30 30 30 et 00000
0048: 30 30 30 000



Some errors from system:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: DCOM
Event Category: None
Event ID: 10010
Date: 05/04/2006
Time: 21:53:40
User: ANT\antw
Computer: ANT
Description:
The server {0002DF01-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Event Type: Error
Event Source: atapi
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
Date: 18/03/2006
Time: 23:51:43
User: N/A
Computer: ANT
Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort2, did not respond within the timeout period.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 0f 00 50 00 01 00 a4 00 ..P...¤.
0008: 00 00 00 00 09 00 04 c0 .......À
0010: 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0028: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0030: 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 ........
0038: 40 00 00 0e 00 00 00 00 @.......
0040: ff 20 0a 12 4c 03 20 40 ÿ ..L. @
0048: 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 ........
0050: 00 80 cc f8 d0 93 c6 82 .€Ìø�“Æ‚
0058: 00 00 00 00 08 80 c6 82 .....€Æ‚
0060: 00 00 00 00 b7 19 87 0f ....·.‡.
0068: 28 00 0f 87 19 b7 00 00 (..‡.·..
0070: 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........


Event Type: Error
Event Source: System Error
Event Category: (102)
Event ID: 1003
Date: 01/03/2006
Time: 22:27:02
User: N/A
Computer: ANT
Description:
Error code 00000044, parameter1 81b0bed8, parameter2 00000d60, parameter3 00000000, parameter4 00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 53 79 73 74 65 6d 20 45 System E
0008: 72 72 6f 72 20 20 45 72 rror Er
0010: 72 6f 72 20 63 6f 64 65 ror code
0018: 20 30 30 30 30 30 30 34 0000004
0020: 34 20 20 50 61 72 61 6d 4 Param
0028: 65 74 65 72 73 20 38 31 eters 81
0030: 62 30 62 65 64 38 2c 20 b0bed8,
0038: 30 30 30 30 30 64 36 30 00000d60
0040: 2c 20 30 30 30 30 30 30 , 000000
0048: 30 30 2c 20 30 30 30 30 00, 0000
0050: 30 30 30 30 0000

There's nothing conclusive that I can draw from that batch of errors, although a couple of them are usually indicative of fairly low-level problems.

* Have you changed any hardware or updated any driver software lately?

* Does the " Hanging application mghtml.exe" error occur frequently? mghtml.exe is a component of McAfee's antivirus/Internet security software packages; uninstalling and reinstalling that software might help.

* The "{0002DF01-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}" error is related to a problem with some component of Internet Explorer. You can try re-registering IE's components (specifically, its core .dll files) by running the free IEFix utility.

* In terms of the "Device\Ide\IdePort2" error: I've seen reference to that being a bug in certain versions of Windows' atapi.sys driver, including the version installed with XP SP2, although I haven't confirmed the bug myself. Other reasons for that range from simply not having a disc (or having a bad or blank disc) in your CD/DVD drive to a bad IDE cable or failing IDE port on the motherboard. Let's leave that error alone for now, as we have nothing to indicate that the error is critical.

* "Error code 00000044". That error is most commonly indicative of a problem with a device driver, or with your RAM. If you've recently updated/changes any drivers, revert to the prior driver version(s) and see if doing so has any effect. If you haven't made any such changes, I'd do an extended/thorough test your RAM with one of the following utilities:

Memtest86
Windows Memory Diagnostic

* Since you've lost your Restore points, there are two other general "fixes" which you can try (short of a full reinstall):

1) Run the System File Checker, which will attempt to find/replace/repair damaged or missing Windows system files. Info on SFC can be found here.

2) Perform a "Repair" installation of Windows. More info here; please read the info in the link carefully and fully.