About 3 weeks ago, my Averatec Laptop 3280 stopped allowing my Yahoo! Messenger 8.0 (and lesser editions) launch. I uninstalled Yahoo! (all renditions) and re-installed several times. No change. I came up with the brilliant idea of running system recovery, which did not work for virtually every system checkpoint date listed going back to June. Has anyone out there experienced this? If so, did you end up throwing the computer out the window, or did you come up with a well thought out rational solution that actually worked? I'd love some advice on this. Thank you!

Is your only problem Yahoo?

Does everything else work OK (besides System Restore)?

In uninstalling and reinstalling Yahoo Messenger it is often necessary to clean the registry first.

There are many reasons for System Restore to become corrupt but if your only issue is with Yahoo I would forget that for the moment. You can always reset System Restore by turning it off then back on. This will clear all points and restart the service. This is done via right clicking My Computer then clicking Properties then System Restore.

To remove Yahoo completely before a reinstall follow the following plus reboot between the uninstall and reinstall:

Uninstall Programs Manually

Just because Windows XP has the Add/Remove Programs feature it doesn't mean your application will appear in the list. Furthermore, even if it does appear, it's no guarantee that the uninstall feature will work. When you run across one of these situations the items listed below will help in getting rid of the application. Be aware that these steps may not remove everything associated with the application and can impact other applications on the computer. Have a backup or restore point and use caution.

*

Find the directory for the application and delete all the files in the directory. Delete the directory. e.g. click C: under My Computer then Program Files etc.
*

Open regedit (start/run regedit) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

To remove the application entry from Add/Remove Programs (if present) open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Uninstall and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

Some applications have Services attached to them. If this is the case, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es, locate and delete the service.
*

In Windows Explorer, navigate to the individual user settings and delete program references. Common places to check would be:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]

If no entries were found in the previous step and the application launches automatically, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
and delete the entry.


A good free Registry Cleaner here: RegSeeker

It is a good idea to backup your Registry before cleaning. This is a good free tool for that:

[ERUNT] Registry Backup and Restore for Windows
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/


[ERUNT Download URLs]
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt.zip
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt-setup.exe


[Installing & Using ERUNT]
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-o...erunt/erunt.txt


....................................

Altering system files; & or modifying the registry can be risky and D-A-L.com and its members cannot accept liability for any adverse effects caused by following advice freely given on this site.

Jephree - thank you for the detailed advice. It will take me a while to do this, but I will give it a try. Incidentally, I went to the averatec web site and there were downloads specifically to fix the problem of losing the ability to use System Restore.

Link: http://support.averatec.com/downloads.asp

This file assists in preventing the accidental removal of the Phoenix Recover Pro Core Managed Environment, a critical part of the restore process on all new AVERATEC notebooks.

So, I have solved the system restore issue. Now it's Yahoo Messenger not launching. Seems like a silly thing to be worried about...

Originally Posted by jephree

To remove Yahoo completely before a reinstall follow the following plus reboot between the uninstall and reinstall:

Uninstall Programs Manually

Just because Windows XP has the Add/Remove Programs feature it doesn't mean your application will appear in the list. Furthermore, even if it does appear, it's no guarantee that the uninstall feature will work. When you run across one of these situations the items listed below will help in getting rid of the application. Be aware that these steps may not remove everything associated with the application and can impact other applications on the computer. Have a backup or restore point and use caution.

*

Find the directory for the application and delete all the files in the directory. Delete the directory. e.g. click C: under My Computer then Program Files etc.
*

Open regedit (start/run regedit) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

To remove the application entry from Add/Remove Programs (if present) open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Uninstall and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

Some applications have Services attached to them. If this is the case, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es, locate and delete the service.
*

In Windows Explorer, navigate to the individual user settings and delete program references. Common places to check would be:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]

If no entries were found in the previous step and the application launches automatically, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
and delete the entry.


A good free Registry Cleaner here: RegSeeker

It is a good idea to backup your Registry before cleaning. This is a good free tool for that:

[ERUNT] Registry Backup and Restore for Windows
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/


[ERUNT Download URLs]
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt.zip
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt-setup.exe


[Installing & Using ERUNT]
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-o...erunt/erunt.txt


....................................

Altering system files; & or modifying the registry can be risky and D-A-L.com and its members cannot accept liability for any adverse effects caused by following advice freely given on this site.