What great options. Digitizing a lifetime of music, voice recordings, movies, etc sure is time consuming. But it's wonderful there are so many options out there. Raven- I had forgotten all about Heartland catalogue. It's been probably 20 years since I ordered from them. Those are some great gadgets. The one with lp too is a bit pricey - esp. since I have a cd recorder connected to my turntable. It's a lot less convenient than having it by the computer - but it works well. The one for just tapes looks good. Grandms'- I don't need the turntable portion, but your post made me think that with the right cables (do you happen to know what they are?) I should be able to hook up my old compact stereo/cassette player to my computer. My question about that has always been that I don't think i have an input into my sound card. Does that mean I have an integrated sound card (without its own input port). But there must be cables that could transfer from a stereo to a usb port. Heck - are there cables that go to a firewire port - or perhaps that's overkill for music files. What's Pyro? Did that come with turntable - or just a program you have? I assume Roxio cd creator could do that - burn a cd? how did you find Cakewalk easier than Audacity? I think I've heard good things about both. And Urlee and Jean love Audacity and find it easy. So I'd appreciate any other thoughts in deciding which software to use? Thanks. Lynn.

There are lots of ways for Windows to become "corrupted" that have absolutely nothing to do with a virus or other malware. That's not to say that you didn't a some kind of infection and it's important to use software to protect your system. You also need to realize that tech support's solution to almost everything is to reinstall the operating system. Level 1 techs don't have the time or possibly the skill to diagnose every problem. So the pat answer is a fresh install. That's why it is so important to make regular backups of critical data. Invest in an external hard drive or use one of the online services like Mozy or Carbonite. If you are going to use an external device don't forget about multiple backups and offsite storage. All the backups in the world won't do you a bit of good if they are sitting next to the computer when the house burns down or a tornado strikes.

you said you got a virus and know that is the problem, well that is not up to Dell support to fix, under any circumstance. Their support is for their product (they do provide online guides and manuals for each pc have you looked for yours), they are not there for assistance in removing infection. If you had a part that failed on the computer then they should help with that but something that is being caused by a virus that you got by doing something is not Dell's fault. Now I am NOT a Dell fan, I personally would not buy one. But any PC manufacturer certainly has the right to say no to that type of situation. If they have helped before they went way beyond the scope of their support requirements. I do own ACER and HP and would not consider calling either of them for help if I had an infection. This is why you should go to the free forum I listed and ask for help to clean your machine. Run a malwarebytes free scan How to download and install Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware application for Windows computers which may fix this problem. Go to an online AV and do a free scan there also ESET Online Scanner What antivirus is on your pc? is it fully updated and does it run weekly scans? what other antimalware scans do you run? Have you run the secunia tool to make sure everything is fully updated on the pc to help prevent any infections through out dated programs like adobe, java and flash? Secunia Online Software Inspector (OSI) Let us know what you need assistance with and we can try to help you get it done.

Anything is possible at BB. The first one I took back had a corrupt hard drive the second developed so many problems that a very qualified award winning certified Microsoft volunteer who has followed that old computer suspects this is what happened. As for the new one I had to replace. Costco concierge service did diagnostics on the phone with me and came to the conclusion that it needed to be returned because the operating system was not responding at all and perhaps the hard drive wasn't installed. It was plugged in and had a friend go through all of the plugs as was asked of us by the service. I took out all of the sockets in my place and had them replaced to meet the country wide code and also bought new surge protectors for my computer. I also have not put in any Microsoft software. The more I read the more I am not qualified to put it in and take care of the problems that most likely will ensue. I called a Microsoft store. There is a central phone bank in Texas that answers for all the calls that come in to the stores around the country. They could not get the store near me to answer the phone and suspected they were all busy. They tried three times as I stayed on the phone. I am not allowed to have the direct number to the store. There are many menus and the idea is you can help yourself by listening to these menus. I want to know if I can bring my PC and buy some software and have them install it.. This can all cost about the same price as my computer. I would like to talk with Bill Gates. The stores have also got bad reviews around the country. There are some excellent ones too but din't reign. I appreciate the idea of not wanting to go through a learning curve for both an operating system that people complained about so vehemently that they made one revision that will help me but then you have software that is either a rental package or a package deal that has difficulty with Outlook That's okay if I have step-by-step instructions or near an IT person which I always had at work. If Bill Gates is reading this please leave a message.