Settings trouble when starting xp

[jhawk1]

Trying to help a buddy and his laptop. It is an older compaq.

When we start it up, the laptop takes a long time to load. When it does load all of his icons are missing, the desktop goes back to default, and it asks us if we want to take the xp tour. (It acts like this every time we start it.)

He recently added a wireless router and upgraded to IE 7.

I'm thinking xp is corrupt and needs to be reinstalled, but I am open for other suggestions. Hopefully he has all the disks for his computer.

Thanks.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Sounds as if XP is restoring from the original 'Restore point' when
the OS was loaded (which explains the long boot time).

You may want to try booting into Safe Mode and turning off "System Restore".
While in Safe Mode, check the 'Event Log' for any clues also.

Then boot normally into the OS several times to see if there is any changes.