Strange happenings w/ win7 - help

Several odd things have been happening that make me wonder about malware. Norton says all is clean but I am not so sure.

What I have noticed out of the ordinary:

1) High memory usage. With nothing running and windows sitting idle after a fresh restart I am about 40% usage, or about 1.4 GB (4gb total memory)
I use Chrome and my wife uses Firefox. We both do keep several tabs open and when we do both browsers seem to be eating up 500-600mb EACH. This may not be a problem but just how it goes with having that many tabs open. But it is only recently that I noticed how high the memory consumption is. Upwards of 80%. I don't recall this being an issue previously.

2) Chrome suddenly stopped working. I restarted the computer and Chrome will not load. I copied my bookmark files onto my desktop and went to uninstall from the control panel and it will not uninstall. Same thing if I try to use the uninstall link through the start menu. I also ran in safemode and still was unable to load or uninstall.

3) Touchpad settings randomly changed. I had disabled tapping but suddenly tapping was reactivated for no reason. I turned it back off and after a restart the driver self-reinstalled and said I needed to restart again. I did. So far all seems normal again with it but I have no explanation for why is suddenly changed.

Outside of that everything seems to be running normally and smoothly. Firefox has no issues and is running fine. Memory wise it using 200MB currently with 3 tabs open (blank google search tab, sevenforums.com., and this page)

Any tests I can run? Any additional scans? I have malwarebytes but have not run it yet... will do that next.

Help! If nothing else, I need to get Chrome working. I have tried several things that I have found via google searches without success.

 

UPDATE:

I just went into System32 files, sorted by create date, and on the 25th two files were created called perfc009.dat and perfh009.dat

It seems that these are the culprit and the date coincides with when I noticed some of the strange behavior.. however, the google issue did not happen until today.

Anyway, Ill continue to research but any help in solving this quickly would help.
A quick scan of malwarebytes came up with nothing. I'll do a full scan next.

 

Another update: I have unclear information regarding the perf.dat files... it seems they may be legit afterall..



However, again in System32, created the same day, 6/25/11, was Acovcnt.exe. This appears to be a backdoor trojan. No idea who I got it but am trying to quickly find a way to remove it.

Can I just simply... delete the file? Or is there a more complex removal process required?
Will I need to consider a format in reinstall?

 

^ Short answer - do not delete that file!
I also have Acovcnt.exe in system32 44KB size and just scanned my machine today with Malwarebytes in safe mode. I also did a full scan win windows 7 with MSE & nothing was found by either program
What antivirus program do you have installed?

 

I haven't deleted it and when I do a google search it comes up in a lot of bleepingcomputer help threads... however, none of them seem to point to that file as an issue... so maybe it's legit?

I have Norton Internet Security installed and it says everything is clean. Malwarebytes is running a full scan now... though not in safe mode.... and it just finished before I hit reply.. nothing malicious found.

Maybe I am just being paranoid but these issues seem out of the ordinary and happening all at the same time, so my guard is up right now.

I'd really like to figure out what is wrong with Chrome...

 

Right I believe it is a legit file. Do you have more that one user account set up on the computer? If you do not I would set up a new one (just for testing to see if any or all of the issue persist).
Sorry to ask about what antivirus you had, I see it in the OP now.
If you still have problems I would recommend this program
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - be sure to get the correct option 32 or 64 bit
(select your version under the download button)

 

I set up a new user account for testing and Chrome still does not load.

 

Here are 2 microsoft tools you might want to try. They are free.

Microsoft Safety Scanner - Remove Spyware, Malware, Viruses Free

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta | Microsoft Connect

 

Thank you, I will try those out.

Also running Ad-aware, which has found nothing.

I got Chrome to work again. I simply re-downloaded the install file, ran it, deleted the old short cuts, replaced with new... and it seems to be just fine now. All bookmarks and various settings still intact.