WinXP SP2 - Start Menu Bar gone!

[MangMang]

Just bought a new pc for my cousin:

Cash/Debit Discounted Price: $299.00
Regular Price: $304.98
CPU: AMD Sempron 2800+ 64Bit
Motherboard: Socket 754 Motherboard
Memory: 256MB DDR400 (Upgradable to 2GB)
Hard Drive: 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Optical Drive: 16X DVD+/-Writer
Video: Onboard
Sound: Onboard
Network: 10/100 LAN
Case: ATX Mid Tower w/300W PSU
Warranty: 1 Year In-Store Parts and Labour
No Operating System
Labtec Internet Keyboard & Mouse (Separate from PC Deal)

I installed WinXP SP2, Office 2003, Norton Internet Security 2006, etc. Everything was working fine on the PC and I got a call this afternoon from my Aunt. Apparently when my Uncle was installing Sympatico (their ISP) he did something wrong, and now his Start Menu bar is gone. It appears on startup and then promptly disappears. I told her to just do System Restore. I tried telling her to hold the windows key and then press Pause/Break, but instead of getting to the System properties window her PC goes on standby....argh. Now, I'm not sure what to do until I get a look at it myself. Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue and if they have any advice.

Thanks :D

[classicsoftware]

A lot of times the whole bottom status bar rolls under the monitor edge. Click where the start menu is and the bar appears. I think it's called Auto hide.

[MangMang]

Yeah, she tried that. I told her to place the mouse on the bottom of the screen to try it, and i also told her to hit the windows key to pop it up. No luck on both tries.

[MangMang]

Figured it out!...It was the Sympatico CD that messed up the system. It wouldn't allow explorer.exe to start. I found this out after numerous trial and error tests. It had "(Sympatico User)", beside it in the Add/Remove menu.

This concludes another PC adventure ;)