Anthony A

You people are fortunate to be witnessing the slow death of Microsoft. Take a look at the huge improvements Mac and Linux have made on their OS and MS has basically stood still and some would say declined in the quality of their OS. Simply look how far Mac and Linux have come since XP first came out. It's almost sad except it's funny. MS is where GM and Ford were 15 years ago. Both are on the verge of disappearing now. MS won't die over night because of the large percentage of Microsoft morons using the OS that can't be bothered to learn something new but that percentage is dropping daily. If Mac ever brings the prices of their machines down to the level of Windows machines it's all over from there.

It can be done with several different methods. Read this Lifehacker link and read the links it points you to. http://lifehacker.com/software/firefox-tip...efox-331930.php

I'm no fan of the Chinese "government" but Microsoft can go _ _ _ k it's self. Those clowns are more worried about you getting something for free than making their software user friendly and stable. If they put as much effort into improving the software as they do trying to lock it down they would be better off. Their business model is out dated.

I am ready for a new phone. I am trying to to decide if I should get a "smart phone" or just stick with a regular phone. I don't know that I would use most of the features on the smart phones. I make and receive calls and text. I also go on the internet which you can do on a regular phone. So the bells and whistles of the new smart phones are not worth the extra money for me and besides the phone will be outdated in 2 weeks after I buy it. If I stay with a regular phone I am going to get this one http://www.telusmobility.com/on/pcs/handset_lg_9100.shtml http://www.cellphones.ca/scripts/pop.php?p=env2.jpg Very cool little phone and not much money. I will probably get it for free or well under $100 when I am done "negotiating" with Telus. It is perfectly suited to texting which I do a lot. I often have over 1200 texts a month. Has camera, internet access, blah blah. The smart phone technology is just developing. I think I will wait. I can't see paying $400-$500 for a device that I probably won't use all the features on and will be outdated in a matter months. My current phone is 5 years old and I could keep it no problem except the battery is starting to go and I can get a new phone cheaper than it costs to replace the battery.

Be prepared to pay a lot of money for that Blackberry Storm. It's seems like a cool phone. It is a touch screen but it clicks when you press the screen like it has buttons.

I'm with Telus also and I was in the Telus store today looking at the Blackberry Pearl and Curve In a few weeks Telus will be getting the Blackberry Storm. It's Blackberry's touch screen phone you may actually like it better than the iphone and the Bold. http://www.telusmobility.com/on/pcs/data.shtml

The actual temp is really not the problem. Wether it's off by a couple Celsius isn't a big concern. It's the rapid rise for no reason even when CPU load is 0-1% and than it stops when I fiddle around with the USB ports. I just use SIW to see it in action.

Thanks I didn't know about doing that I will give it a try. I will look when things are well and take note of the values and than check when/if the temps start acting up and compare the values.

Yes the nag screen is a small annoyance for using such a great program for free.

Me too. Where in Ontario are you? You might be my neighbour I wouldn't know it.

I use this to monitor everything on my machines http://www.gtopala.com/ it's called SIW which means system information for Windows. You want to know whats on your machine and I mean anything use this. Here is a shot of the temps section. In your situation I would definitely look at a cooling pad for the laptop. My machine's HD does not get hot nor does the bottom of the machine. Knock on wood but my CPU has not acted up since I started this thread. This is how it goes though. Tomorrow, next week or next month it will start again until I play with the USB ports and it fixes it. I don't think I will send it in until it totally fails. Dell let me extend my warranty for another year for $100. So anything that goes wrong is covered. Even the HD costs more than that and the MO BO is way more than that.

I suggested banning Image crap Shack I was serious. You don't have to try and view a pic hosted there to experience a slow down either. Just loading the thread is a frustrating experience if there are images in it hosted on Image Shack. Maybe for the good of the forum this should be looked into. As Dennis said there are plenty of alternatives.

The awesome bar is the address bar. Start typing in it and you will get a list of bookmarks, tags, and history of visited pages in a drop down list.

You said in your previous post that when the Temp hit 70 you shut down because you fear HD damage so I though that's what you were referring to. The temps you are talking about is that Celsius of Fahrenheit?

Are you talking about CPU temps or HD temps? My HD temps are not problem it's the CPU randomly spiking that's the issue. The problem is on a Dell Inspirion 9400 with an Intel core 2 Duo T7400.

Portable and regular FF are identical. Every thing you can tweak and do on the regular FF you can do on the Portable. All they do is take regular FF and make some changes to the file structure so it's all self contained in one folder and give it a launcher. Settings and feature wise they are identical.

What make is your laptop? If my problem was constant it would be much easier to pin point the cause. Since it runs fine for days and weeks at a time it makes it harder and I have little confidence that Dell will find it until it totally fails if it ever does.

I would. I would do a clean install of FF2. Also get FF3 Portable. No install necessary so you can have on the same machine with FF2 and they don't conflict.

No kids. Just cover them to keep dust out when they are not being used. The laptops are closed also not left with the lid open if not being used.

I don't phone them for help because as you said they know very little. You have to phone though to start any kind of action on the problem because that is their process. So you have to jump through the hoops the tech guy wants you to before you can get any where. The mouse receiver is the only USB device that is constantly in. When the CPU temp problem starts simply removing the reviver doesn't fix it. I tried that and just used my touch pad and the temp problem was still there. Re inserting the mouse receiver fixes the problem. So it seem removing and re inserting the receiver does something to the USB ports that fixes the problem. I have been using the machine for 4 hours now and the CPU temp has remained constant and no fans had to come on. Very intermittent this problem is and I seriously doubt the tech guys will spend enough time on it to find it. They will send it back and it will be the same. Only when it totally fails will they get it fixed. Maybe there is some device thy hook it up to that can pin point it. The truth is is could leterally be thousand sof different things.

I was looking at cooling pads but it would just be treating the symptom not the disease. As I type this my machine is working fine. Probably will for a while. Than for no reason I will notice the fan coming on frequently when it shouldn't be and will continue to do so until I unplug the USB receiver for the mouse and than plug it in again. I know if I send in the machine they will just wipe it and it will come back a totally different machine. They won't bother to try and diagnosis it. Dell's first solution to every problem is reinstall Windows. It's the first thing the tech support guy recommended. Blows my mind how they always jump right to that. Since the problem is intermittent they might not even get it fixed. With my luck the machine will work fine while they are looking at it and than start messing up when I get it back. It won't get properly fixed until it totally fails than the problem will be easy to diagnose Fortunately I have several images of this HD with a couple different programs so worse case I send it in and if they screw my set up I install the image.

Yes I do that and keep them covered when not in use. My machines look like they just came off the assembly line.

Yeah we should all switch to IE7 because we all know it's the most secure browser known to man. Very unlikely you will be exposed to any security flaws with IE

Hard drive temp is fine. I'm pretty sure it's the temp for the CPU and not the mother board. It's a dual core and has two temps one for each. Dell thinks it might be a mother board issue to and wants me to send it in to the depot to get it checked. My warranty expired yesterday but they said they would cover it for me anyways which is great of them since a mother board costs as much to replace as the whole laptop. It's definitely tied into the USB ports though since removing the USB receiver for the mouse will fix the hight temps for a while. Not really wanting to send it in though. Too much info on the machine and I don't want to wipe it.

Thanks.