getting rid of malicous software virus

is it possible to have a virus in my BIOS? i was running windows xp and
was remote accessed by someone with adm permission. after a reformatting i
installed linux, yet my BIOS are still wrong and again i slowly lost
access... i have not been back on the net since installing linux and don't
support a wireless card. from what i can decifer the program makes a shell
of all it's given including software installed after install of the os. it
uses a ohci host control driver from my usb core(?) Acpi and SCSI to
control my periferals. i see mention of a RAID device and a mass usb
storage device. my root is attached to a dev that can't be accessed
because my network is not accessible and therefore can't be partitioned or
edited. i've lost root user privledge and have been running around in bash
trying to regain it. my accessible memory is only 40 MB compared to a 250
hard drive. can it be in my onboard video memory (64MB)? i don't expect to
not need to seek technical assitance, but i would like to know what i'm
dealing with first. Hewlett Packard suggested taking out the battery and
restarting, to no avail. the bug is learning from what i try to do in
code commands... any ideas? need more info? please respond, thanks.