Vista startup issues

I have a compaq presario purchased about 1 yr 1/2 ago from HP. Yesterday it completely crashed and would force me to a system repair screen. I kept trying the auto repair, but it wouldn't work. I eventually tried the restore original OS option. There was no disk fo restore. I didn't even think about saving everything on the C drive first
Although I get misc popups telling me that many of the apps are not running, I've finally gotten it to show the icons. Now I've been unable to establish my wireless internet connection again and I haven't found an app that is working.