Tried a repair install of the OS?
Hi...
I am leaning in this direction, too, as far as suggestions go. Here are the instructions from another post I made regarding this, should you desire to go this route:
If you own a legal copy of your OS (a Microsoft Windows XP CD, I don't think a restore CD will work in this case,) you can perform a repair install with the instructions listed here, please read the entire page...
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htmIf you only have the restore CD's
and have a Compaq Presario desktop PC, then this option here may be helpful...
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c00007689Choose the "standard recovery" when asked. Although this option claims to leave your data in place, in both cases, be prepared for the possibility that files and programs may be lost.
If for some reason you don't have any restore CD's, then there may be a restore partition (with a different drive letter) located on your hard drive. You can verify this by clicking on "My Computer" and seeing if there is a second, smaller partition listed as possibly as "D Drive" and having the title include the word "Recovery." If so, then that partition and the recovery options can be accessed by tapping a certain key during POST (before you see the Windows XP splash screen on bootup.) This key may be F10 (as I have seen with older Compaq's) but your system may be different. If this is not the key for your system, please see your computer's documentation for this information or call Compaq at 1-800-652-6672. Please be aware that the recovery options available through this method may be a bit different than what I've listed here.
Hope this helps.
May God Bless you!