Ok sorted it out now. Seems to be some form of malware that was continually trying to execute a DLL or two. Adaware was no help, Kaspersky didn't find anything either but IE kept trying to open a window. Used msconfig to see what was loading and the last 2 enties were for a DLL in a temp directory. Couldn't delete the files so started in safe mode and then deleted them. Now all is serene.
ps
Why not use the tools installed with windows for finding problems & solving them rather than assuming the whole thing is a dud?
In the vista control panel, under system, there is an option called problems & solutions. Any software fault will be logged there. There is also the event viewer which does the same. You wouldn't sell a new car because the headlight broke, so why take the same view with a pc?
Where did I say I wanted to get rid of the PC? all that was wrong was it was driving me mad.