Virus/malware escaped Norton AV '09 and killed comp

My Mom, who has Norton AntiVirus '09, was viewing a wallpaper site this morning when her computer was hit.  She ran Notron, which said that all risks were resolved, once it had been closed out, the Start bar and all on screen icons began slowly flashing in and out.  My uncle sent us to this site - http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic34006.html - to do what he said was the fix to the problem, because Norton said it was Hactool.Rootkit.  We did the fix that the site said to, but to no avail.  We tried it several times.  Is there any other way that can save the computer, or has far too much damage been done already?  My Mom is not very computer literate, so she has a hard time understanding all that goes into it, and I am confused as well, since this is the first time that something like his has come up.

 

Also, if a fix can't be rendered, would a total wipe get rid of it, or will the problem still persist?