Whenever I restart my computer, a couple settings always reset. 
Namely, I have an wireless card and I always have to reset it from
being controlled by the program that came with it (a Linksys brand
program) to being controlled by windows and I always have to reset my
mouse scroll wheel from one line at a time to five lines at a time.  I
realize that I could probably just uninstall the wireless program but
that still leaves the mouse question.  Nothing else seems to reset. 
I'm trying to find out why this is happening and what I can do to fix
it.
I'm relatively adept at computer stuff and I've asked some
knowledgeable people who don't know the answer either.  I have a 2 or
3 year old HP laptop.

hey,
    When ever the computer restarts the startup programs takes effect.
One of these startup items could actually cause this problem. maybe u
might wanna take a look at this article

www.support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

That article is for windows xp. Hope yours is windows xp ;-)

DevilDriver
\m/

Hello,

If you are running windows (I believe you do).

You might have an adware or registry watching software(such as:
Microsoft AntiSpyWare tool, SpyBot, Ad-Watch from Lavasof) that is
blocking the settings from being written to the registry.

Or you might also have a problem with your Windows registry... since
it is a 3 year old laptop. I am assuming you have not reinstaled the
OS on it since then.

Without proper maintenance computers get out of hand and start acting weird :-)

Regards, Friend

Start -> Control Panel -> System -> System Restore(tab) Check the box.
hit apply. restart.
This will stop reseting all of your stuff...System restore is worthless trust me..

You did not say what kind of computer you are operating, so the exact
path to follow may be different than mine.

The answer is in your computer settings. Shut down your computer and
restart. Before the start screen starts you must hold down the f12
key. Once in the settings screen you will want to navigate to System
Devices. Make sure your mouse, keyboard and anything else there is sat
to auto or if you have "save user setting" you will want to make sure
that option is checked or turned on. Each computer manufacturer
configures their computers different but you will find the answer
there.

In your replies  or comments there are some good issues covered The
last was to check what is your bios (basic input output system) . Good
point but unless some ne has tampered with it ,It should be fine , I
do believe you have to many what are called prossecces running
depending on your os WIN98 Win2K or XP some times programs come in the
form of popups And what the do is currupt your prossecces
By demanding priority over normal prossecces. AD-Aware is a good tool
to remove some of these . Also I would recomend Norton System works
for xp it cleans cookies and unessesary old compressed files. I do
believe your laptop schould be defragented after cleaning to establish
order among the file structure also.Defragmentation schould be used if
you open my computer and then right click on your C:\Drive you can use
disk clean in several versions of windows.Dfrag in safe mode by
holding the F8 Key down on start up Good Luck

OK, allow me to take a shot at this, without overwhelming you.  It
sounds like a corrupt user profile (which contains registry settings).
 You will want to go to the Start Menu - Accessories - System Tools -
Files and Settings Transfer Wizard and backup your user settings and
files.  Then log on as an administrative account, different from the
account you always logon using, and backup your old user profile (I
know it's redundent as we just did it using Files and Settings
Transfer Wizard) and then MOVE your user profile folder (located under
C:\Documents and Settings) to your temp folder.  Then logon using that
old account name and allow Windows to re-create your profile using
default settings.  Then make your changes and see if they stick before
you run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard again to restore your
data.

Also, if you want Windows to manage your wireless connection make sure
that the Linksys program is not in your startup folder located under
the start menu.

Steve