Reformatting and Restore Points First, my specs: 1.4 ghz Athlon 512 MB RAM 100 GB hard drive w/ 83 GB free Window XP Pro Here's my deal: Had been running Windows XP Pro with no problems for several months. Then, I noticed that applications would take forever to open when they used to appear instantly. So I did a virus check, and found 4 backdoor viruses in various RP folders in the System Information Directory. I deleted the viruses from that hidden directory, and also removed them from the recycle bin. Then, I attempted to restore my system to an earlier date, using the XP tool that guides you through a system restore. The restore process features a calendar going back a couple months with various dates in bold, indicating that those dates contain restore points. So, I select a date before I had the problems and I get a message that says "System Restore Incomplete, unable to restore to system to date requested, no changes have been made." When I select other dates (all of which are in bold), I get the same message. It makes no difference what date I enter, I cannot seem to get back to an earlier point in time. I have never manually created a system restore date--perhaps that's my problem. But why then would the calendar show many bold dates which indicate that those dates are available for a system restore? It seems that Windows XP has automatically created restore dates anytime a program was added or a change was made to the registry, but I can't get back to those earlier dates. My computer boots up very fast. But once I click on a program (Internet Explorer, Word, Powerpoint, anything executable) it takes upwards of 5 minutes for the applications to open. This is very wrong. I've done disk defragmentation, and "disk health" checks, and performed various optimization and maintenance tasks that are supposed to keep everything in good working order, but to no avail. Since it looks like I'm out of luck regarding using the System Restore feature, and since I'm now free of those viruses (my virus software along with Housecall detects nothing anywhere), I'm thinking that my only hope is to do a complete rebuild. Ug. I've never tackled this before, and it sounds intimidating, but I can't think of anything else to do to get my applications to open in under 5 minutes (once they do open they seem to work, by the way). Any file that I want to keep I've saved to ZIP disk, and I have the installation CDs for my software programs so I can reinstall them. But completely wiping out and starting over is scary, and I would appreciate some advice and even some basic instruction on how to do this, or if I even need to. By the way, my XP Pro install CD is labeled "upgrade" (I upgraded from Windows 2000), so I hope it has the necessary stuff for a complete install. Any advice appreciated, thanks, Kent

Have you changed the date in windows xp, because if you do this causes problems in system restore, I had the same problem. The best thing is when you've got everything working create your own restore point.

Turn off system restore.... it never works for me.... If the files that need to restored have been deleted out of the recycle bin then it cant restore them... I know sounds weird... About your programs starting slow... try going into the Windows/prefetch folder and deleting all the files.... These files allow XP to PREfetch your commanly used programs.... if these files get corrupt then it can slow you down.....Dont worry deleting these files just allow XP to make new copies of them...

It's better to try to repair XP first, which is basically reinstalling XP on top of itself without reformatting. http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm If your hard drive is close to being full, that could cause sluggish performance. A registry cleaning program can help too. XP seems to end up with a lot of dead entries in the registry after uninstalls.

Hey a friend of mine was running a 800mhz athlon with a 40 gb harddrive brand new. At first the performance was great but slowly the progams took longer and longer to load. He had no viruses and kept up on services. Finnally he went to his dell adgent and the took a look and found that the athlon chipset was faultly and was corruping the hardrive. The replace the processor and the badly damages harddrive for free. If all else fails, talk to the people who made your computer. :)

Ken, I'm having the same problem. I have been told to reinstall xp. Also don't want to do that. Have you been able to get the Restore to work and if so, would you provide me with the info. By the way here is the procedure presente to me by Gateway: "Verify that the computer is turned off, and then disconnect all USB devices such as a printer, scanner, or camera. This does not include a USB mouse or keyboard. Start up the computer with the Operating System CD in the CD-ROM drive. Setup inspects the computer's hardware configuration. The Windows Setup screen appears. Setup continues to load files. The Windows XP Home Edition Setup screen appears. Press the ENTER key to set up Windows XP now. The End User License Agreement (EULA) appears. Press the F8 key to accept the EULA. The Windows XP Home Edition Setup screen lists partition information. Press ENTER to set up Windows XP on the selected item. Setup creates a new partition. Use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys to select the appropriate file system, and then press ENTER. The default option for Windows XP computers is the NTFS file system. Setup formats the partition. After formatting is complete, Setup creates a list of files to be copied. Setup copies files. Setup initializes the Windows XP configuration. The Windows XP Home Edition Setup screen shows that this portion of Setup is complete. The Operating System CD remains in the drive, but remove any floppy disks. Press ENTER to restart the computer or wait until the computer restarts automatically. The computer restarts. If you are prompted to "boot from CD", do not press any keys. Allow the computer to start uninterrupted. By "booting to CD", the Setup process starts over again. The computer restarts and Windows Setup reaches the "Installing Windows" phase. Setup starts and continues various file copying tasks. In the Windows XP Home Edition Setup dialog box, review the regional and language options, and then click Next. Type your full name and the name of your company or organization, if applicable, and then click Next. Type the name of your computer, or accept the default option, and then click Next. Type the correct modem dialing information, and then click Next. Check the date and time settings. Type the correct information, and then click Next. Windows Setup continues copying files. After files are copied, the computer restarts. If you are prompted to "boot from CD", do not press any keys. Allow the computer to start uninterrupted. By "booting to CD", the setup process starts over again. In the Display Settings dialog box, click OK. In the Monitor Settings dialog box, click OK. Setup returns to a Windows environment with a Welcome screen. Click Next. If there is a network interface controller (NIC) in the computer, Windows XP checks for Internet connectivity on the network. On the How will this computer connect to the Internet? screen, click Skip. Use the Internet Connection Wizard once the installation is completed. Note: This screen only appears if there is a NIC in the computer. Windows Setup prompts you to register online. Registration is optional. If you do not want to register now, click No, not at this time, and then click Next. If you choose to register at this time, registration information is collected. Windows Setup prompts you to set up Internet access now. Click No, not at this time, and then click Next. Windows Setup needs to know who is going to use this computer. Type in the appropriate names and then click Next. Note: The user names typed here will appear in alphabetical order on the Welcome screen. Windows Setup transitions to the desktop and briefly displays a Welcome screen. The Windows XP Home desktop appears."

Ken & Pete, I am experiencing the same problem. Even Notepad takes 9.5 seconds to open. And I'm afraid it will get progressively worse. I thoroughly scanned my computer for viruses and trojans and found none. I also downloaded all of the latest Win XP updates and they did not help. Curiously, I found two ways temporarily resolve the problem: 1) use the System Configuration Utility (to open it, click Start-->Run-->msconfig) to disable the DHCP Client and then reboot; 2) disconnect the ethernet cable from my laptop. Both solutions correct the problem of programs opening slowly, but they prevent me from accessing the Internet. Has anyone found a real solution (or cause) for this problem?