We are having an ongoing problem with a Dell laptop that has got me puzzled.
I am on the verge of simply replacing the computer and using the old one for
non-production use, but I thought I would see if anyone else has any ideas
first. I've listed the details below. Please let me know if you have any
ideas as to what the problem may be.

Thanks,

BHAF


COMPUTER & SOFTWARE
- Dell Latitude D620 laptop
- Windows XP SP2 (now SP3)
- MS Office 2003 with latest SP & updates
- NOD32 AV
- WinZip, Adobe Reader, Flash Player, & similar standard software (all
current or near current versions)
- ACT 2000 contact manager

SYMPTOMS
1. The machine boots up and runs very slowly (i.e. everything takes a long
time).
2. When any sound is played, it breaks up badly. This happens with internal
and external speakers and doesn't matter what the sound is (e.g. Windows
sounds, music from MP3 or CD).
3. Occasional blue screen of death. Minidump files show BugCheckCode:
000000f4.

HISTORY
We purchased this computer new in April 2007 and it worked fine until about
May 2008. (It was on Windows XP SP 2 at this point.) It then began having the
problems listed above, although the user couldn't think of any particular
event that preceded the problems. I worked on my own and with Dell to try
various things including:
- Ran Dell Diagnostics. Found no problems.
- Updated all drivers to latest versions.

Dell finally said to reinstall Windows. I did a clean reinstall of Windows
XP SP3 (i.e. reformatted first) and all of our standard programs. The machine
then ran beautifully for a couple of months. Last week, the user installed
various Microsoft updates downloaded automatically by Automatic Updates (see
below), and the computer immediately began having the symptoms again (except,
so far, the BSOD). One by one, we then uninstalled all of the updates
installed last week, but the computer still has the slowness and sound
problems. Note that we have another D620 purchased a month or two after this
one that runs the same software, and it has had no problems. Because it
doesn't appear to be a hardware problem, Dell won't replace the laptop.

RECENT UPDATES
This is order in which I uninstalled the recent MS updates. I believe there
was also a Root Certificates update, but that was not uninstalled.

1. Security Update for Windows XP (KB956803)
2. Security Update for Windows XP (KB956391)
3. Security Update for Windows XP (KB957095)
4. Security Update for Windows XP (KB954211)
5. Security Update for Windows XP (KB956841)
6. Security Update for Windows XP (KB956390)
7. Update for Outlook 2003: Junk E-mail Filter (KB957257): OUTFLTR
8. Security Update for Excel 2003 (KB955466): EXCEL

FYI, we were able to use System Restore to restore the system back to a point
before the updates, and the computer now works normally again. For now, we've
decided to not apply any further Windows updates. In the future, I'll either
apply updates one at a time to figure out where the problem lies or replace
this computer and use it for some other purpose (testing, etc.).

bhaf