Here’s how to bring back ‘restore’

July 31, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Q. I seem to have lost the restore function on my computer. Clicking on “system restore” in “performance and maintenance” from the control panel does nothing. What can I do to restore this function to my Windows XP system?

— L.K., Raleigh, N.C.

A. System restore is a handy function that allows you to roll back your system to a point in time before you, for example, downloaded a virus or deleted an important file. Microsoft support offers several solutions if system restore doesn’t run.

Start by going to update.microsoft.com to install any system updates. If you are prompted, restart the computer. After the computer restarts, click “Start,” “All programs,” “Accessories,” “System Tools” and “System Restore” to see if it’s working.

If that doesn’t work, you also might want to try making sure that system restore is enabled on the drives where you want it enabled. Click “Start,” right-click “My Computer” and then click “Properties.”

Click the “System Restore” tab. If it is enabled, the “Status” column of the drive will show “Monitoring.”

If not, you can uncheck the “Turn off system restore” box and then click “OK” to enable it.

Finally, you can make sure you have enough disk space on the drives where system restore is enabled.

To check for free disk space, Microsoft says, click “Start,” then “Run” and type diskmgmt.msc. Press “Enter.”

Look at the free space in each drive that system restore is monitoring. If free space on any partition falls lower than 50MB, system restore will suspend. It will resume monitoring when free disk space reaches 200 MB.

Q. From time to time (sometimes once a day, sometimes repeatedly throughout the day), my computer mouse freezes and I have to reboot to start it again. You can imagine how much time and work I lose with this problem.

I have used AVG to clean up my system every way I know and downloaded Registry Mechanic and have run all those programs.

Afterward, for two or three days, I had no problems, then it all started up again. What can I do?

— T.J., Godwin, N.C.

A. A problem like this is most often a hardware problem, not a software issue, said Paul Rosenberg of Love Your Computer in Chapel Hill, N.C.

If it is just the mouse freezing and you find the keyboard responsive, the next step would be to try another mouse, he said.

You also can try the same mouse in a different USB port.

If you are experiencing a complete system freeze and having to hard-boot the computer, you may have a more serious problem such as a failing motherboard or power supply, he said.

In that case, you may want to check with your local computer repair shop.

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2011, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)

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