Cannot Access Control Panel

[dg27]

On the 2nd system listed below, everything is functioning fine except that I cannot access the control panel. Whenever I try I either get the "Windows Explorer was forced to close" dialogue box or clicking on the control panel from the start panel gives no response at all.

I only noticed the problem because I use a screen saver and suddenly that went away as well (got the the black screen with the message that the photos in the folder could not be found).

I run ESET NOD32 antivirus, Spybot, and AdAware regularly.

Any ideas as to what the problem could be?

dg


Dell Dimension 8400-1: 3 GHz, 2 Gb RAM, XP Home SP 2, Seagate 160 Gb SATA hard drive [boot]. Promise ATA PCI 133 card w/Seagate 400 Gb backup drive + Maxtor DiamondMax Plus Ultra 16 300 Gb storage drive. Maxtor One-Touch II 200 Gb external storage drive, Linksys WRT54GS router, Dell 2001FP LCD.

Dell Dimension 8400-2: 3.4 GHz, 3 Gb RAM, XP Home SP 2, Seagate 160 Gb SATA hard drive [boot] and Seagate 400 GB backup drive. Promise ATA PCI 133 card w/Samsung 120 Gb storage drive. External 160 Gb Maxtor DiamondMax 10 storage drive. Linksys WMP54GS Wireless-G PCI Card, Dell 2007FP & Dell 1905FP LCDs. Key Connection Russian-English keyboard.