Numerous problems with software freezing & system restore failure

I run XP Home Ed SP2, IE6. I have ZA firewall, AVG Professional, AdAware, Spybot, Spyware Blaster and I just ran the CWS download from this site. All find no problems (and I did uncheck the box for hidden files & turned off Restore). I do regular disk cleans and defrags and assume I'm doing what I can for a healthy computer!

I have also uninstalled any drivers that I recently installed
I ran a registry and windows clean up from 3B software, but this was before the problems really started

The problems have been gradual, mainly associated with Microsoft Word & Adobe (I now cannot install any version of Adobe). I re-installed Microsoft office 2 weeks ago which helped for about a week and then the problems started again - ie I just cannot open Word at all.
But today, my pc has been randomly rebooting, with errors about drivers - all my drivers are up to date, as far as I know
Also my windows and office package is up to date

My System Resore no longer functional (I have run through all the points on Microsoft Troubleshooting guide). I did start a thread here about it but no-one could help - It would go through the motions of a restore, reboot and then just say "Your computer could not be restored to xxx"
Today, I tried again and now it won't even let me select ANY date on the calender - ie there are no restore points

My husband thinks I have a virus hidden somewhere but nothing is finding it if I have.
Someone suggested reformatting my HD but is that necessary? Would it help?

At this point, any suggestions are very welcome! Thanks!

 

Hello I have been through a xp course in school and hope I can help.

Its not suggestable to delete dll's they have a tendency to merge with other dll's and deleting can cause all sorts of problems since they are only small files and run only when the device or software is started that they support deleting them really doesnt change much. system restores are to say the least useless since the restore points make changes that can make some programs and files unaccessable or unresponsive. Try going to trend micro house call at trendmicro.com and run there free scan its great also recommend the pccillan it has done wonders for my computer after that if no viruses are descovered put the windows xp disk in the computer reboot and choose to repair windows this will get you on the path by recovering any missing drivers or sys files. It may help to uninstall both office and adobe and do the recovery and then reinstall those programs after to ensure all files are properly loaded if none of that works backup your system and reload windows our worst fear system format.

 

Thanks for replying
If any dll files have been deleted, it wasn't intentional - BUT I have been worried that the clean up I ran may have deleted some. I have a tendency to be too thorough in cleaning (my office has enough junk so I like my pc clean! LOL)
I did try to do an XP repair from the original CD-ROM this morning but it wouldn't do it - kept saying that my current system was newer than what was on the CD-Rom

I will try trendmicro.com this afternoon, see if it finds anything.

Ack, failing that system format. I have NO idea where to begin with that so fingers crossed I find a solution before then!

Cheers!