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If all else fails JJDetroit, re-install Vista. You may have a corrupted installation of Vista and it needs to be repaired by re-installing Vista on top of Vista:

read here:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistawu/thread/d4d3ee99-f9de-4ae2-ba6b-acf88d70e4f3

after re-installing Vista with the Vista CD that came with your Sony laptop, install full SP1 pack then install full SP2 pack. done.

best to install the full Vista SP2 package since I haven’t had any problems installing it. I’ve done that last month on my cousin’s HP laptop with pre-installed Vista Home Premium (updated first to SP1 level, then installed SP2) and also updated several drivers and Vista SP2 works great.

just turn off the card animations in Spider Solitaire, Dennis. On the Menu bar, click Game, select Options, then uncheck the “Display Animation” option, then click OK. the card animations are sometimes distracting anyway, regardless whenever I play either the XP or Vista version of Spider Solitaire.

I’ve been using a laptop cooler under the computer and it seems to keep the laptop cool enough to run without over heating. My daughter-in-law ran into the same problem and a cooler is keeping her laptop running well. It’s worth a try. These “notebook coolers” and “laptop coolers” and aren’t terribly expensive — $19.95 to $49.95 — and are often on sale for less.

I think you mean laptop cooling pads, Daniel.

I gotta get me one of those for my mom’s Dell Inspiron laptop, especially when my brother or my mother uses it in the summer months. Highly recommend getting a laptop cooling pad.

I upgraded the hard drive and ram in my Toshiba P205D-S7438 (it’s a year or two old). A while after this it started shutting itself off, and seemed to be getting worse. It sure seemed like an overheating problem. I vacuumed out the cooling ports, but this didn’t help. Then a tip from the internet suggested a BIOS upgrade. I did this on Jan-11-2010, and this has cured the problem completely. I use the computer multiple hours every day, sometimes all day.

Good luck,

Brian
Ausitn, Texas

Brian, I think certain Toshiba laptops have faulty power management problems which is why your Toshiba laptop has some unexpected shutdown problems but it’s good you updated the laptop BIOS to fix those problems.

actually Doc Watson, there are some applications out there that DO require Win98 SE (2nd edition) and NOT FE (1st edition). Adobe Reader 6 is one of them
and its setup program will not allow you to install Adobe 6 under a 98fe OS. better to use Win98 SE if you want to use programs that require a minimum
of 98se. Microsoft’s own & old Windows Media Player 9 app also requires Win98 SE and NOT Win98 FE.

Also in Win98 SE is improved WDM (windows driver model) support; some audio devices installed under 98fe that use a WDM driver may work better in 98se.

I take it that if I install 64 bit Firefox, that I won’t be able to use Flash? (Rick Hantz says no 64 bit Flash available). I had thought of installing FF 64 but would need Flash compatibility (32) or native 64 version wouldn’t I? (I use FF while browsing and most online news etc is flash vid).

you will need a native x64 bit version of Adobe Flash, which will be due out later in 2010. currently on the Adobe Labs site, a 64bit version of Flash 10.1 beta 2 is currently available only for 64bit Linux systems. Mac and Windows versions of 64bit Flash won’t be available until later on so you will have to wait a while.

Also in this article is the Ready-Boost story. Originally, Ready-Boost was designed to allow computers with only about 2 GB of RAM to run Vista more smoothly, especially when running very CPU and RAM intensive applications. Since even the lowliest laptops running Vista or Win-7 these days seem to come with 4 GB of RAM, newer, more efficient Core i3 and Core i5 processors, and 64-bit Windows, I doubt seriously that Ready Boost will offer any advantages to most users today. It was a bridge technology whose time has come and gone. Ready Boost can even SLOW performance on PCs with a lot of RAM.

what about computers with only 1Gb of RAM, bobprimak? this Dell Inspiron laptop I’m currently using with Vista Home Basic 32bit edition has 1gig of memory. what good will ReadyBoost do with this kind of configuration?

i may try those battery saving tips Fred mentioned in his article. the battery on my 6-year old XP laptop seems to be running out of juice relatively quickly for less than 1 hour.

Yes, we get machines returned with trojan infestations. Most of these are running Limewire in the bootup sequence, and the owners have deliberately installed what WS readers would call adware and spyware (the rest patronize gambling or porn sites). Security software will not help here.

they are probably using the free basic version of Limewire, which may come with adware/spyware, Solo Owl. Upgrade to Limewire Pro for a price. Otherwise, get rid of the free Limewire app (and the stuff that comes with Limewire) and get FrostWire, which does the same thing as Limewire but does NOT contain any adware/spyware and is free. FrostWire is one of the LimeWire alternative programs out there.

AlanMiller, the latest version of the 98 SE Service Pack on the web site is 2.1a, not 2.0.1.
get the latest version from there.

I don’t agree with this, but I guess it depends on which viruses you happen to catch.

same here. I see no sense in anyone saying not to worry about computer viruses. not all but some new types of viruses CAN harm Win9x/ME machines. fortunately some antivirus makers (like ESET’s NOD32 and avast!) are still supplying recent updates to their old software that still functions under Win9xME.

@J North, why are you using Comodo software? I heard Comodo has had a bad reputation lately. For one, I am NOT letting any Comodo software touch my computers.

Forget Kaspersky, LegareColeman. they have already dropped Win2000 support. get AVG, avast or NOD32 as these antivirus products still work with minimum of Win2k.

well folks, Chrome 4.0 has been officially released on their web site recently.
pretty good now that it makes use of Google Extensions which are addons almost similar to Firefox.
Chrome is still missing a Print Preview feature, which other browsers like IE/Firefox/Opera/Seamonkey/Netscape have. I’m not printing web pages at all from Chrome w/out Print Preview.

Regarding “To disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader, open Reader and click Edit, Preferences. Choose JavaScript in the left pane, uncheck Enable Acrobat JavaScript in the right pane, and click OK.”

But nowhere can I find the place to click OK. Am I missing something?

first of all, SanDiegan11, upgrade to Adobe Reader 9.3, which has the latest security fixes. then if you want, you can do the following to turn off Acrobat Javascript. also, the OK button is there to click on to save changes; if you can’t see it, try changing your screen resolution to a higher one or move the Preferences dialog box upward until you see the OK and Cancel buttons. I know they’re there.

Did Adobe issue patches for the Aurora 0-day? Will Adobe change the default behavior of Reader so that Java Script is disabled unless the PDF actually needs it? If not, is it necessary to redisable Java Script after each update? Does Adobe notify users that updates are ready? (If the answer to any of the last three questions is negative, then the Average Joe Internet could be in trouble.)

Solo Owl: answer to first question is no. so far Adobe Reader is NOT affected by the Aurora 0day vulnerability unless Adobe themselves have published a security advisory for it and has offered an update for it. answer to 2nd question is maybe. answer to 3rd question is no. answer to 4th question is yes as long as the option in the Preferences dialog box in the Updater section of Adobe Reader is set to “Automatically Download Updates But Let Me Choose When to Install Them”. otherwise, Adobe automatically downloads AND installs updates without your permission.

responding to Yardena Arar’s article: Internet Explorer 5.01 SP4 was originally NOT affected by the IE hole, but Microsoft has released a patch for IE 5.01 SP4 / Win2000 SP4. So that means IE 5.01 SP4 is also affected.