This XP-pro is updated to the week, runs a good anti-Spyware and
Spyblaster, Avast and ZA pro. It's as clean as I can keep it. Even so
there have been freezes and three finger reboots needed. Over the last
few months, I've had several presistant and minor problems come up. For
one thing, the laptop (Dell 5100) is taking longer to boot and net
connections run more slowly. Ave. connection speed is now 26.4 kbps.
Also major programs with drawing components like Paperport and
Pathfinder Office have lost significant abilities like width control on
line drawing and text sizing, for example. Their help and support forums
are useless. Reloading them does not change anything. I'm thinking some
shared files may have been erased or components which reside only in XP.
How to find lost files or reload "everything" just to see if things
change? All ideas are appreciated!
mike h

mhagen wrote:

> This XP-pro is updated to the week, runs a good anti-Spyware and
> Spyblaster, Avast and ZA pro. It's as clean as I can keep it. Even so
> there have been freezes and three finger reboots needed. Over the last
> few months, I've had several presistant and minor problems come up.
> For one thing, the laptop (Dell 5100) is taking longer to boot and net
> connections run more slowly. Ave. connection speed is now 26.4 kbps.
> Also major programs with drawing components like Paperport and
> Pathfinder Office have lost significant abilities like width control
> on line drawing and text sizing, for example. Their help and support
> forums
> are useless. Reloading them does not change anything. I'm thinking
> some shared files may have been erased or components which reside only
> in XP. How to find lost files or reload "everything" just to see if
> things
> change? All ideas are appreciated!
> mike h

Since you've kept your computer clean and malware-free, I'm thinking
you've got some hardware failures. Reloading Windows in that case will
be useless. From your description, I'd look at overheating and/or video
failure. Since this is a laptop, you can't do the normal "open it up
and swap things out" t-shooting. Call Dell tech support and don't let
them tell you to reinstall Windows. You can test the memory yourself,
which won't hurt, but it sure sounds more like power supply, video
chip, and/or overheating.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

Malke wrote:
> mhagen wrote:
>
>
>>This XP-pro is updated to the week, runs a good anti-Spyware and
>>Spyblaster, Avast and ZA pro. It's as clean as I can keep it. Even so
>>there have been freezes and three finger reboots needed. Over the last
>>few months, I've had several presistant and minor problems come up.
>>For one thing, the laptop (Dell 5100) is taking longer to boot and net
>>connections run more slowly. Ave. connection speed is now 26.4 kbps.
>>Also major programs with drawing components like Paperport and
>>Pathfinder Office have lost significant abilities like width control
>>on line drawing and text sizing, for example. Their help and support
>>forums
>>are useless. Reloading them does not change anything. I'm thinking
>>some shared files may have been erased or components which reside only
>>in XP. How to find lost files or reload "everything" just to see if
>>things
>>change? All ideas are appreciated!
>>mike h
>
>
> Since you've kept your computer clean and malware-free, I'm thinking
> you've got some hardware failures. Reloading Windows in that case will
> be useless. From your description, I'd look at overheating and/or video
> failure. Since this is a laptop, you can't do the normal "open it up
> and swap things out" t-shooting. Call Dell tech support and don't let
> them tell you to reinstall Windows. You can test the memory yourself,
> which won't hurt, but it sure sounds more like power supply, video
> chip, and/or overheating.
>
> Malke

Hmmm. You might have something there. It does overheat and has a real
internal dust problem. Found out that this is typical of the 5100s. How
this would effect drawing software is beyond me though. Thanks for the
clue and I'll look into it.
Mike H