[AuckLUG] resetting configuration

[Ravi Chemudugunta]

hi all,

ever since the feisty 2 gutsy upgrade my computer is very badly
broken, for some reason, the cpu drags for even simple tasks like
copying files; I am pretty sure it has something to do with my X setup
as I was playing around with compiz-fusion; it doesn't quite work with
multiple monitors / or requires some tweaking.

I tried creating a new user in hopes that the configuration files in
~/ will not be there to screw it up, but it appears some of the
configuration in /etc is broken some how but I don't know which it is,
I was wondering if there was a way to reset all of the configuration
of every package on the system ? ... i.e. do some kind of
dpkg-reconfigure and get it to replace user modified files ?

cheers,

ravi