System Restore points won't load

[Erehwon]

5 year old HP desktop running XP SP3 with all updates. Yesterday I
developed a problem with IE where I couldn't get any YAHOO pages to load,
including my home page. Any time I tried typing in a YAHOO URL, the address
bar changed to a YAHOO page address followed by various characters that had
not been entered and the screen would be blank. Tried to resolve with a
System Restore but every restore point that I tried came back with a message
similar to: "System restore incomplete. Cannot be restored. No changes
have been made to your computer." I ended up resolving the initial problem
by noting that YAHOO was listed as "ALWAYS BLOCK" in the "Per site privacy
actions" on the privacy tab of IE Internet options and deleted it. Not sure
why but, after that, YAHOO problem was gone.

Even though initial problem is resolved, however, I still want to get System
Restore working. I haven't tried restoring in the past 6 - 12 months so I'm
not sure when problem developed. I have updated and run Spybot, Ad-Aware,
and my AV program, Free AVG, with no change. I next tried turning off
System Restore, Rebooting, turning System Restore back on, and rebooting
again. I then tried creating a restore point and then tried restoring to
that point but got the same "...Cannot be restored. No changes have been
made..." message.

I'm also running Spy-Bot SD Resident, which I also shut down during the
above exercise, and Zone Alarm firewall. Any suggestions as to next steps
to resolve this issue?

 

[SC Tom]

5 year old HP desktop running XP SP3 with all updates. Yesterday I
developed a problem with IE where I couldn't get any YAHOO pages to load,
including my home page. Any time I tried typing in a YAHOO URL, the
address bar changed to a YAHOO page address followed by various characters
that had not been entered and the screen would be blank. Tried to resolve
with a System Restore but every restore point that I tried came back with a
message similar to: "System restore incomplete. Cannot be restored. No
changes have been made to your computer." I ended up resolving the initial
problem by noting that YAHOO was listed as "ALWAYS BLOCK" in the "Per site
privacy actions" on the privacy tab of IE Internet options and deleted it.
Not sure why but, after that, YAHOO problem was gone.

Even though initial problem is resolved, however, I still want to get
System Restore working. I haven't tried restoring in the past 6 - 12
months so I'm not sure when problem developed. I have updated and run
Spybot, Ad-Aware, and my AV program, Free AVG, with no change. I next
tried turning off System Restore, Rebooting, turning System Restore back
on, and rebooting again. I then tried creating a restore point and then
tried restoring to that point but got the same "...Cannot be restored. No
changes have been made..." message.

I'm also running Spy-Bot SD Resident, which I also shut down during the
above exercise, and Zone Alarm firewall. Any suggestions as to next steps
to resolve this issue?

I, too, have been having this same problem with restore. I have found that
the only method that works (for me) is booting into 'Safe Mode with Command
Prompt.' Then run c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe. It brings up the
graphical interface, allowing you to restore to a previous point, but not
create one. I don't know if Zone Alarm has its hooks that deep into the OS
or not, but even booting into regular Safe Mode didn't work. I'll keep an
eye on this thread and see if anyone knows a solution; I spent about 2 days
off and on Googling for solutions with no success.

SC Tom

 

[Gerry]

Erehwon

Try reinstalling System Restore.
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/reinstall.html

Reasons why System Restore fails
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html

Another reason why System Restore can fail is a malware infestation.
Although you scanned are there any other problems like Task Manager or
Event Viewer not working?

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
1.32 -freeware (if you upgrade you pay).
http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

Run Malwarebytes' in safe mode and turn off your current anti-virus
before you do to avoid a conflict. Disregard the invitation on the web
site regarding the Registry Optimiser -a Registry Optimiser is not a
helpful utility.

Have a look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for
Errors and Warnings and post copies here. Don't post any more than 48
hours ago.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[SC Tom]

Gerry,
Thanks for that! I don't how I missed not trying that before. I think that
the problem I was having started after SP3, but I can't swear to it- luckily
(or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), I hadn't tried to restore
anything up until about a month ago, and then found out it didn't work. I
used my slipstreamed XP SP3 CD to reinstall it and it now works within XP
like it should.
Thanks a lot,
SC Tom

 

[Gerry]

SC Tom

Um. I didnt realise you also had a problem. Glad my post helped you.

--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[SC Tom]

Yep, I mentioned it in my reply to the OP.
Thanks again.