Slowly losing control of peripherals

[Lecasbas]

I have a HP Pavilion Slimline s7530n PC. I also use AOL.

I recently downloaded Beta AOL which has been updating my registry everytime I shut down my PC. This has been going on for several months with no apparent problem but about a week ago my PC kept telling me that it found new hardware. This "new hardware" was a printer which I have had connected for a couple of years.

I decided to put in the cd which came with the printer to reinstall the "new hardware". Well, my PC did not recognize my cd drive. I then started looking online to update the drivers for my cd rom. I did not find any on the first attempt.

The next day my modem could not find a dial tone. I double checked the phone lines (I'm out in the country) and they were okay.

I backed up my important files and tryed to Restore my computer. No luck. I then did a recovery. No luck again.

I've switched to an older computer and am now trying to find the problem with the newer computer. I am currently downloading the "registry booster" from this site in hopes that I can transfer the program to my newer computer to check the registry.

I'm thinking that AOL updating my registry daily may be the problem. I no longer use the Beta version and will not allow any registry changes until I can figure this problem out.

I have an basic understanding of computerese but this problem is a new one for me and I would certainly appreciate any suggestions.