Vista - WMC Popping Open Constantly - Other Problems

I reformatted by Dell Inspiron 1721 laptop a couple of months ago and everything's been working perfectly until a Windows SP2 update automatically installed itself last week - now Windows Media center opens up constantly (very distracting); I've removed it from services and from startup, but it continues to pop open.

Also, a funny looking file menu will sometimes pop up all by itself on the top left of the screen.

And windows or programs I have open may just close themselves out by themselves.

This has all been going on for a week and is becoming very annoying. I don't use Media Player, but understand it can't be deleted. Until I chose "Don't show me this message again" there was a message every time I booted up that said something like, "Your new hardware needs to be installed." I had not attached any new hardware.

Anyone have any ideas? I really don't want the hassle of reformatting again so soon.

Thanks,
SWOFKY

Hi SWOKY, welcome to the board.

The problem could caused by anything, but you can start on making sure if the problem related to the update by restore the system to the day before the update.

Post back and let us know how is going?

Bruce

Thanks so much for answering!

I'm so sorry that I forgot to mention:
The day the problem started, I used system restore back to every point the system had saved and nothing changed any time. I've since deleted all those restore points as they didn't correct the problem.

Also, I've run AVG, SuperAntispyware, MalwareBytes, and none of them found anything. Then ran the online Panda Security Scan and it found a file ending in Silent.exe that it couldn't disinfect. The filename also had AverMedia in it - - so I uninstalled Avermedia and deleted all files connected to it - - ran the Panda scan again and it found nothing suspicious.

I'm at a total loss as to what to do next. The problem is maddening.

Thanks for any further suggestions - - I'll try anything!
SWOFKY

Please close thread, have finally gotten help on another forum.

Thanks

how about posting fix?

Yes, please post your solution to your problem so that others out there that might have a similar problem can try it.

Greetings. Sorry for the delay - - I got help on another forum, but sadly they couldn't fix the problem.

Incredibly, nothing can, evidently. Even finally nuked the drive yesterday with KillDisk and did a clean install of Vista, then installed drivers and security software only.

The Vista updates haven't even finished installing and the problems remain. I'm in Cyber Twilight Zone or something.

Does anyone know if anyone else on the planet has had this problem?