SRS -

The description above could have been much shorter, given that you're familiar with Dr Watson, and should suspect other log files that might give info on what's happening.

In Win Explorer, you could click on your C:\ drive, Search for filenames including ".log," - search subfolders, hidden, and system files. (You're likely to find more .log files than you might expect.) Any of the .log files should open in Notepad, and may have clues.

The main purpose for saving a HijackThis log is in case what you find is one of the nastier ones that makes Registry changes, you'll have a place to look back at what you had.

When an offending file is identified, you may be able to look it up at one of the anti-scumware sites and find a more sophisticated/complete cleanup procedure, and knowing what was running may help make a more positive identification.

John