Nothing is quite as refreshing as a nice backup/format/reinstall! It's like giving your pc a bath, it's all new again.
Sometimes if you can't find an easy fix, home computers are just better off with the ultimate fix option. You can spend more time hunting down problems, getting frustrated than if you know when to draw the line and reinstall. Especially since this is XP, installations of XP don't last like with Vista/Win7 and slowly degrade.
Good opportunity to set up a large backup area partition if you don't already have one.
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Xbox 360 & a PC currently undergoing mitosis
•AMD Athlon 64 X2 DC 6000, 3GHz •3GB PC2 5300 DDR2 •Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2 GB
•Creative SB X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro / Logitech Z-5500 •Logitech G27, Nixim mod