cant "System Restore" -- window is blank

hi,
im having a problem with my mothers computer,
windows XP home and Netzero internet contection.

this happened a while ago.
when i updated nortons 2002 with there free updates. it caused an error while trying to log onto the net. it would give me a NETZERO ERROR "PRM2" so finally i uninstalled nortons and it worked fine. so a few months go by and my mother goes to get online and she starts getting the same error. but we have NOT updated nortons or done anything different. (she only uses the computer a couple of times a month.)

so I tryed to do a system restore to an earlier time and the window that is suppost to open and say "restore to and earlier time, created a restore point" etc... is just all white, no text, just up in the title bar. "system restore"

so then i find out that my help window wont open. at all, i get the little hourglass then thats it.
also the "Search" window comes up but there is no text or search options on the left. although the little dog is animated.
and under control panel, User accounts, i get a blank white box.

the computer is from HP, 1.8 P4 but they didnt supply a Windows install disk. at least i dont think they did and can not find one.

So i cant reinstall XP home. and i cant do a system restore.

Has anybody had any problem with this?

One thing that i think i could do is. Clone my hard drive with XP professional onto her's and then go back in and delete everything she doesnt need. would this work. or would windows realise that the serial number on the CPU was not the one registered to me.?
Thank you

Dunno if you resolved this issue, but go and put in your win xp cd. go to find and look for file named sr. Once you see the file, right click and choose install or run. Choose browse and look for it at the cd. once you find it, choose it and run it. It will reinstall your system restore.