Ara T,
A good sense of humor is a valuable thing.
Thanks

This might sound daft but instead of going backwards with system restore - sometimes going forwards with MS updates helps.

I've often "solved" undetermined XP problems by just doing a windows update. I assume that the malicious software update they do sorts out a lot of trouble. I could be wrong I know virtually nothing about Windows... but at at work where they insist on using Windows I'm quite often the hero of the hour for fixing the computer again...

(I hope they don't read this! I'll loose all my Brownie points)

Do you have an XP disc? If so have you tried booting from that into repair mode?

If worst comes to worst, and assuming you have backed up your data and it is a brand-name computer, you can power it down, disconnect all the peripherals (leave just keyboard, mouse and monitor, no internet connection either) and then boot it into system restore/reset (the process for that depends on the manufacturer, google will help you find it for yours). That will use an image on a hidden sector to completely overwrite your hard drive and reset your computer to the way it was when you bought it. You'll have to then install good AV software and spend some time on Microsoft's site getting patches, service packs and other updates, after which you can reinstall all of your programs and, finally, restore your data.

Good luck.

If that's so, how come I'm BROKE? :D:D:D

Weird, that was JUST said on the Dick Van Dyke show I am watching.

It sounds like a motherboard issue. Did this all happen simultaneously ? My first thought was a bad IDE cable but that doesn't explain the USB not working.

Because you bought a mac. :D

I deserved that my good Sir. :D

fixed it for ya....

Mac's are Rocks!!!;)