Alright. My computer had started to go odd and the page file usage was really high (250mb with no programs running!) and I could not figure out anyway to fix the situation, this had started only recently so i thought I would restore my system to the earliest possible time (november 17 or something) and see if it was a problem there (I had fixed problems that had been caused after then and didn't think those problems had been around on that date). I restored it to that date and on restart, i signed into my account and nothing started up! there was just my desktop wallpaper and cursor, so i turned off the computer and then signed into a non administrator account. I was given a message saying something like "this program can only run on an admininstrator's account". So I logged onto the administrator's account(and it worked this time) and discovered my pf usage was still really high so I went back to system restore to undo my last restore but The system restore window was blank. All that is shown is a blank screen, I was worried and thought that perhaps it would work in another account, so i decided to make another account on the computer the admin's account but the user control panel no longer works either! I really need this fixed or I will go mad. I had been been in the registry fixing removing norton antivirus fully from my computer (it was successful) and everything was going fine until the pf usage began to go high and cause programs to close. A blue screen also came up very recently (like today) and said that drivers might have caused the problem. I am basically dumbfounded, the user control panel and system restore do not work and I think there may be other problems hiding(msn messenger acted oddly and did not allow me to sign in and I am also confused as to why there were programs on my dektop that were not there on the day I was restoring my computer to but were installed in December) Can anyone help or offer any suggestions? I have links to pictures. http://www.whahay.net/pubaccess/SystemRestore.PNG http://www.whahay.net/pubaccess/UserAccounts.PNG (P.S. I really need to undo that restore)

First off 256mb for a pagefile is what xp requires as THE LOWEST amount. Not the highest. The rule of thumb is to set the lowest at 250 and the highest 1&1/2 times what your ram is. so if you have 1g ram the highest you would set your page file to is 1500. Now tweekers will turn it down to 250 and leave it there set as lowest and max so as to utillize more physical ram instead of vertual ram. But lowering it any further than that...I just don't know about. Now as to your other issue. You say that system restore actually restored back to the date you specified but everything is not accurate to that date as you remember it. and while in the registry you had success deleting the norton files. Well you know norton uses system restore also for backing up your system. So what I think you did was removed norton that had some pathes to some files locked in the restore files and you killed them so they had no place to go when you restored them the system popped them onto your desktop. either that or you did more than what you meant to do in the registry. Try to do a system file checker to restore the two programs that seem to be out of wack. start > run and type in "SFC /scannow" without the "" and notice the space. You will need your xp install disc and not a restore disc. If that doesn't work them you may have to do a windows repair from the repair consol. Good luck. IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE, swim with the current; in matters of principle, STAND LIKE A ROCK

Well, I went to this page which is telling me exactly how to fix the problem I have. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309663 But it still doesn't work! And I don't have the windows XP disc because I got this computer with it already. I am beginning to lose hope. The search, help, system restore and user accounts don't work! I don't know how to use the recovery console, everytime I try, it says the administrator's password I enter is not valid which is simply not ture as it is correct what I am typing! I went into safe mode but could see no advantages from doing that and In tried SFC /scannow but nothing is helping.

Hi there, Believe it or not, I am having the EXACT problems as you are. Search, help and system restore are not working for me either. And also, EXACTLY like you, I too recently un-installed norton anti-virus. I am on the verge of re-installing windows. But, I also found that I have a few other problems: I cannot sign in to my e-mail account (hotmail.com). when I visit that site, all that comes up is a blank screen! I have tried ALL methods for fixing it, have used sfc /scannow, and none of them worked. I will keep you up to date, and if you find a solution, please e-mail me at grimreaper710@yahoo.com. as that e-mail still works! Thanks, Amit.

NAV is so messed up its untrue.. the same thing happened with me but downloading and running the microsoft script 5.6 worked perfectly. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c717d943-7e4b-4622-86eb-95a22b832caa&displaylang=en Hope this helps.