I'm sorry to say it, Philly, but those are very similar symptoms to when my mobo was dying... my ROM drives kept disappearing and sys restore would go through the motions but was never successful, and my Nvidia 8800GT graphics card settings would revert back to 600 x 800 from 1280 x 1080... it wasn't being recognised correctly in Windows device manager because the mobo/BIOS was messed up.

My issue started much like yours, with Windows refusing to shut down and sys restore not functioning, then a racing sound coming from the CPU/mobo and freeze ups, then peripherals not being recognised as there.... oh, and the intermittant BSOD's, which were probably graphics card related due to its non-recognition.

The situation is not quite that bad... it is fixable with a new mobo, depending on make and model, for under a $100 USD.

Best of luck with it Philly.

New mobo means a reinstall of the OS...

Looks like I'm going to have to put the XP computer out in the middle of the road if I want to get rid of it.

There were two problems, one, apparently I picked up something while visiting on the internet that messed with some files and got past the A/V and security stuff, not nice.  The other was the last updates from Microsoft made some folks systems not see thier CD and DVD drives, how nice.  I remember probably more than a year ago an update stopped folks from getting on the internet.  Never thought that something like that would happen again.

So all is well after repairing files and even works a little better, imagine that.

Thanks starkers, but there was just a little spark there that said, gee I might have to think about a new computer.

I wonder if it might be worth looking at putting in a new motherboard and CPU to upgrade the XP computer, but then I remember some very wise advice, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

It is actually like this new car I just bought - it already has a computer problem where the tach and speedometer and sometimes the fuel guages read wrong or for that matter not at all. Then after you drive it a while or turn the key on and off again it all comes backup and works fine. So we are doing a check out of the computer this weekend at the shop to see if we have to get a new one or if it is something else.

Seems one personal friend of mine says it is a ground that is not very good. Which he may know very well being an x GM line mech. for 5 yrs.. Thus I've got the books out and I'm look all the wiring over very carefully to see if it is right or wrong. But I need more test equipment. Thus this weekend I'll be under the hood of a new Pontiac Sunfire trying to figure where or what is up with either the computer or the wiring.

Either way I bet I find it and get it fixed at whatever the cost may be!!!

I love that part for these new cars ___$$$COST$$$___  

Oh almost new a 2006 Pontiac Sunfire...

Shhhh... now you done gone and said it.

Now if I can just fix the car I'll be happy. I'll get it this weekend I bet...  

No, it doesnt. I swapped about year ago my old MSI socket939 mobo and Athlon64 3200+ for Gigabyte p35 and C2D E8400 + 4 GB DDR2 and no OS reinstall was needed. Later I could even overclock the CPU to 3,6 GHz without any problems.

But maybe i just got lucky.