Bad Image rootbug? Options

[MikeWater]

Hi, I’m afraid that this will have to be my introduction post.

As of 7/03/09 (around 1:30 AM EST), whenever I start Firefox I am greeted with this message next to a red circled “X”:

“firefox.exe – Bad Image
globalroot\systemroot\system32\MSIVXnspwdmaxqwxiypxuqauptbitipujqrtx.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support.”

Unfortunately I don’t really know how to create screenshots, but what I typed out is exactly what is displayed. I tried looking up this strange file but the closest I’ve seen anyone else have is “something””random characters”.dll
So far, whatever is on my computer has slowed it down tremendously, and I get occasional pop-ups that open up in internet explorer even though I am running Firefox. I’ve reinstalled Firefox (which hasn’t changed a thing), and any attempt at doing a system scan on symantic antivirus seems to be forbidden (It says that symantic cannot run a system scan as there is already another scan in process on my computer, when there isn’t). When I open Windows Defender I tried to check for updates (since it had been a long time since I last used it) but I get the following message: “The program can’t check for definition updates” “Error found: Code 0x80244019.” I was able to do a quick scan with Windows Defender but it didn’t find anything.

I am running Windows Vista Home Premium. I want to know if there is anything on my computer in danger, if it is safe to backup anything, what this infection is doing and will do to my computer, and of course how to rid my hard drive of it.

Any assistance in this urgent matter will be greatly appreciated!

--Mike