As I mentioned the other day, I made the mistake of taking my laptop to a "professional". It still is not right, and I have my suspicions that this guy is either incompetent or makes sure the things are not fixed right in order to ensure repeat business.
Anyhow, I have been thinkng that perhaps I should just wipe off the hard drive and start over. I do have the original discs for Windows XP Home, and for the programs I use; for the programs I downloaded, I do have the serial numbers etc. Also, I have a device I bought when I bought the laptop around five years ago, called "PC Relocator". I used it to transfer everything from my then desktop to the new laptop, then when I bought the new desktop I used it again. I feel I could probably use it to transfer stuff from this desktop to the laptop IF the laptop were wiped. (I tried to use it to get my various stuff from here to there after the "repair" but it said I had already used it.)
I have checked on Google, and there are several tutorials on how to do it, but I don't know whether I should do that, or just take the machine to Office Depot and have them wipe it for $29.99.
p.s. As this laptop is five years old, and weighs 8.5 lb without the plug-in power pack, I have also been considering buying a newer lighter one. The problem there is I want to stick with XP Home until the next program, which will supersede Vista, comes out. I looked at a couple of netbooks, but none of them has a telephone jack - which I sometimes need if I am staying with friends who don't have WiFi or broadband. Also, very few of them have cd drives. Now, I suppose I could buy an external one of each, but that is more stuff to carry, and to buy, so I might be better off buying a smaller laptop, but, where to get one with XP? Buying one from Dell seems to be the only option.
I freely admit to being undereducated here - it is simply "not my field".
Any suggestions from the knowledgeable ones?
Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.