On 5/25 I wrote:

"I have a problem with Windows ME. After a couple of
hours of use the system slows way down. The cursor is
jerky when it moves and system sounds become "echo'y".
Even the clock falls way behind actual time. It acts like
a resource problem but when I close all of my open
applications, the available resources seem to be restored
to an acceptable level without a corresponding recovery in
system performance, the clock will not even catch up. I
have run both scan disk and defrag. I also have an up-to-
date virus checker and have specifically scanned for
sasser. The problem goes away after a re-boot only to
return after another couple of hours. Heavy internet
usage (on line gaming or streaming audio) seem to cause
this to happen more quickly. I do not believe that
hardware is the problem as this is a fairly recent
phenomena. Any advice?"

Noel Patton was kind enough to point me towards several
utilities to run to detect possible viruses/hijackers.

First off, thanks everyone for all the advice. I was
hopeful that we got this nailed, especially when AdAware
detected some possible browser hijack attemps. However
after cleaning my system the problem has not gone away.
What would be my next step?