Which version of Windows are you running? If you are running Win9x (which seems likely, from the symptoms), you can invoke the boot menu and boot to Command prompt only. Once you have a command prompt available, type in scanreg /restore. This presents you with a list of recent Registry backups. Select one that you feel comfortable with, restore it, and reboot. The .CAB backup file contains all 4 registry files: System.DAT, User.DAT, Win.INI, and System.INI.

Hope that helps...

If you are running Windows 2000/XP (which I don't think you are), get to the boot menu and choose "Last known good configuration". That choice restores the latest backup (usually at last boot) of your registry and most important system files.

I'm running off Windows XP. How do I find the "Last Good" thing or whatever. What do you mean the boot menu? I don't see anything under that name.

If your computer restarts due to some weird error, and wasn't properly shut down (or shut down cleanly), or for some reason was unable to successfully boot into Windows, the next time you start up your computer, it will automatically prompt you with a boot menu. The menu tells you that your computer wasn't properly shut down, and asks if you'd like to boot into Windows normally, or use the last good configuration that worked.

Or u can press F8 as Windows is about to start and it'll popup

That also occured to me a couple of times while adjusting bios settings and having to do a hard reboot due to the system freezing. I finally figured out that when it displayed that message - shut the system down - unplug it and allow the motherboard to reset and then restart - cured it every time. May not apply to yours - but hey, it's worth a try.

I got the idea from the Network Control Modules that I program at work. Less than often, their math doesn't seem to make sense. When this happens, I nice 30 second "time out" in the corner with no power applied (allowing the capacitance to drain from the board) will often clear these types of problems. So I tried it on my PC and low and behold - it worked!

Just another quick sidenote : not all software problems are due to software. Sometimes the hardware can cause issues that mimick or disguise themselves as software problems. And all that is needed is a small, quick fix. Often people are quick to blame the software when the originating conflict started with the hardware.