Speech Recognition in Vista on Lenovo 3000 N100 laptop quit workin

When I try to launch the "advanced speech options" I get this error message:

The requested task cannot be carried otu because the necessary enting could
not be created. Please select a different engine and or audio device."

Now, I've Googled this error message and tried a numbe of things. I've
deleted the UserLexicon. I've tried updating the drivers for the onbaord,
RealTech audio. NO luck.

I have a real mixed bag of software installed on this machine, and I've
installed and removed Office 2003. I am not sure if that is part of the
problem.

Speech recognitiion worked fine when I got this machien in 4/07. I didn't do
anything with it back then, other than to just try it and be amzaed. Now that
I could use it, it is dead. I'm not sure when and how it went away. I had
some hard drive problems that I had to fix with CHKDSK (a whole 'nother
saga...), and so I don't have restor points back to "day 1."

I hate to have to reinstall the whole darn OS to fix tihs. Lenovo's approach
to providing system or component restore is pretty horrible. They have it on
the hard drive, and it looks like you he to do a fresh start and just lose
all your installation configuration settings. In short, I'd be spending hours
reinstalling stuff and reauthenticaing it.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Robb