Quote:Here is a question I'll throw out: Suppose you buy a preconfig Vista from the BBox store, but you are enamored with your XP OS and are in no hurry to switch to vista. Could you pick up an $80 copy of XP Pro, assuming it's still on sale out there, somewhere, delete the preconfigured Vista and install the XP? Just a thought. Oh and BTW, I now have Vista on my new Toshiba laptop (I don't love it or hate it, just trying to take it all in), and there is a option in the control panel that enables you to set it to the classic XP look, where the desktop and start menu will stay just as it is in XP. Quote The big problem people are finding now with laptops especially because of different drivers/manufacturers utilities, is not all drivers are avail when switching from XP to Vista. One would have to make sure the reverse also has been addressed with the newest laptops ie drivers for XP avail for those laptops that came with Vista. Alot of people are jumping with the change and not checking first. Shortly after, they are back on these forums complaining about this function not working, or that function.

Thanks for all the replies, I really appreciate that. So do I understand that apart from checking out the 'Wake on LAN' feature that is the way it is? If so I have no problem, it was just that at times when I am not at my computer and he calls 6 to 7 times then gives up I feel he may lose interest. That was when I would like to call him back so he does not get despondent. As he almost always calls between 10.10 and 10.20 every morning my time I had better start rising a little earlier to get a few chores done so I can be here regularly, ha ha. At least I have found and had him bookmark a couple of interesting live webcams including one on a Bald Eagle's nest where the chicks hatched a couple of days ago so perhaps he will go online more to check out the birds. Then I might be able to 'find' him and make contact. Hopefully those kind of sites might stick in his mind better so he can become more comfortable with and understand the simpler concepts of computing. Once we get there then the sky is the limit. Thanks again for the help.

Go into your BIOS and make sure your hard drive is in the list of boot devices. Also make sure it's not set to try to boot from the network. Next time you boot, watch all the messages carefully and see if there is a message about a bad boot sector or a bad device or a bad drive. I may be wrong, but I think I've gotten similar messages when I've had a hard drive go bad on me. If your hard drive had a problem, you may be able to resurrect it using Spinrite but it's kind of expensive, so if you have a good backup and install disks, you'd probably be better off replacing the drive and starting over. Even if spinrite recovers the drive, you'll probably need to replace it soon, but spinrite buys you time to recover the data on the drive.

I just bought a Toshiba L45 bottom line laptop for $450 after $150 rebate. Luckily it has a Pentium Mobile Dual Core processor, dual layer dvd burner, wifi, 5400rpm hard drive, 1Gb memory, graphic card with 128 mem and can use system ram too, 15.4 inch true-bright display. Sent 90 bucks to an etailer for 2gb of Kingston memory and a 4gb sandisk usb drive for Vista's readyBoost feature. Works nifty actually on 1GB, a 1gb flash drive does give it some added snappyness. I have a wifi enaabled modem from my isp, which was free. And a second wifi access point out back because there's a dead spot where I sit out there. Not much to it really. You dont need to send much if you watch for the sales... I prefer to stay away from the celery type mobile processor because they can get more hotter on your lap than most and dont think they have the power savings flexabilities. I'm replacing a 4 plus yr old toshiba that I broke and will mickey mouse it back together one way or another and probably make it a part time server and back up computer so I can make my old desktop into something with a coolness old factor. It uses too much electricity so I cant run it full time. I'm rambling... its way to cold and windy out there, 45°/8:30am .... which is like ..freezing to me.