So far as I can tell, your posts have been helpful. It's been at least a couple of hours since my last hard boot, and I'm typing with my fingers crossed.

Andrea--I bought this computer with Vista already on. Two hard drives crashed on me about six weeks ago, and I then made the mistake of trying to get a working computer from Circuit City (Circuit Shitty), which basically wasted a lot of my time, effort, patience, and money.

Can you believe that when you return a nonfunctioning computer to Circuit Shitty, they STILL charge you for having put the Operating System on, even though they don't explicitly give you the chance to opt out of having them install that?

My argument was that since this computer was returned, making it THEIR computer, then I should not be asked to pay for having an OS installed on it. Especially since this was the Second time in two weeks that I had had to return a brand new computer to them. (Two defective machines in a row!!!) "What next, I said . . . do you expect me to pay for maintenance to your car?"

Their argument was, "it's store policy." To which I could only reply . . . "I have a policy too. I no longer shop at Circuit Shitty."

So then I bought a computer from Dell. It has its issues, some of them Vista-driven, some of them possibly Operator driven, but so far it's miles away from my experience with Circuit Shitty.

Unfortunately, it's also miles away from my experience with Windows XP, which worked very well right up until my recent move, when everything went haywire.

On the plus side, the mayflies are "in-hatch" right now where I am, and it's great to see them return. They are a sign that the local water supply is in very good shape. Also, the color of the hatch tells you what color jig to use when fishing. So life is pretty good.

Herring405