Hello all. I have a 2006 Dimension E521 with dual core AMD64 and XP media centre. Currently snow-bound and looking to cure a problem.

Daughter bought us a Logitech Webcam C200 for Christmas so we could see/talk to our other daughter in Spain. She & her chap installed with the cdrom supplied. They then downloaded Skype. It seemed successful although the Skype test calls were poor - sound break up digital fragmented. Our 1st call to Spain was not OK, we could see each other and we could hear them but they couldn't hear us.

Unfortunately the installation and/or the Skype download seemed to cause big problems with various things on the PC including internet explorer and other home pages, adverts hanging - and therefore interfering with the next step, log-ins for example. Daughter and boyfriend J, both of whom are far more comp literate than we are, have gone back to their home. Over the phone we decided to uninstall Skype. Did this (although I have not  uninstalled Logitech). This has improved matters and we can now access internet and our emails etc.

One of the things I have tried to do (having used it once before in 2007 after a problem) was to system restore to a date prior to the installation. This proved to be a problem. I opened system restore on 1/1/10 so got a Jan calender. I clicked on previous month - nothing; I clicked on settings - nothing; I clicked on help - nothing. I looked up the programme in system and it showed that system restore was running and on auto. I have opened the programme several times since 1/1 but get the same result - there are no highlighted dates and no other months available.

I don't know if the Christmas installation caused the problem or not. System Restore is not something I have looked at for over 2 years. Talking with J on the phone it seems that there are problems with Skype and some sound cards including ours - Signatel - and also conflict with McAfee and some other programmes.

I hope that all this makes sense and perhaps rings bells with somebody.

Any help to snow-bound IOW would be much appreciated. Peter