"files Containing System's Registry Had To Be Recovered"

After Windows finally loads, I get a message that reads "One of the files containing the System's registry had to be recovered by use of a log or alternate copy. The recovery was successful."
Running WinXP Pro on HP6800. Slow shutdown and slow entry into Windows. Had recently gotten message about dumping memory. I tried swapping out other memory but no change. System Restore won't allow me to restore to an earlier date.
Computer seems to be running well after slow boot.
I always use add/remove programs from control panel to change software. My untrained eye doesn't see anything unusual in startup of msconfig.
I have read numerous web posts from other sites and tried some of the suggestions of fixes about this problem but haven't been able to resolve this problem. Most of the information is a few years old and I was hoping for a "latest and greatest" tada fix.
Any help appreciated.

I would suggest downloading Memtest86 and running it to rule out problems with RAM modules. Problems with RAM could be a definite factor in computer performance.

http://www.download.com/Memtest86/3000-2086_4-10524193.html

A generic fix for this kind of error is available from Microsoft. It's called the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service and it's free here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

MS Hive Cleanup had no effect.
I was unable to sort through running Memtest but swapped in another stick of memory and the symptoms remained the same.
Any other suggestions?

It now appears that my problem is likely related to the User Profile.
I was able to use System Restore but then started getting a new message "WINDOWS CANNOT LOAD THE USER'S PROFILE BUT HAS LOGGED ON WITH THE DEFAULT PROFILE FOR THE SYSTEM DETAIL- THE SYSTEM CANNOT FIND THE PATH SPECIFIED.
DETAIL - The system has attempted to load or restore a file into the registry but the specified file is not a registry file format." There is a 30 second countdown and then opens into the normal profile and settings.
I created a new Administrator account and logging on with that account doesn't produce the warning.
Apparently the old Administrator's User Profile is corrupt.
Is it easiest to just transfer the corrupted user's profile to the new administrator's account or is there a way of correcting the defect?
I am a novice at this and am grateful for explicit directions.

Well, there's lot's of different things that you can try to fix the old account - but it's gonna take a lot of time and a lot of experimenting to see if we can stumble upon the fix that you need.

It'll be quicker and easier to just copy the data over. Here's an article from Microsoft on how to do it: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151