There's a number of components that influence how fast a page opens on your computer but they are sufficiently variable that at any given moment a page may open more slowly than the next or last moment in time. The things you can control are the performance of your computer, the speed of your local network, and the speed at which you connect to the Internet. Computer performance has a huge number of variable, from physical hardware, operating system, memory, what's running in the back ground, what software you're using, etc. If you want to compare the performance of two computers you really need to use some kind of benchmarking software. Wired connections are almost always faster than wireless connections. "Excellent" signal strength doesn't necessarily mean the fastest throughput. Lots of thing influence the performance of wireless networks, including those the networks of your neighbors. Obviously you can pay your ISP for a faster connection but those are theoretical maximums and real world performance will be less and highly variable.

At level8technology (sells batteries) there is info about the problem. One of the solutions suggests running the battery down to zero, then recharging. I saw this suggestion on a few websites. Another suggestion was to put the battery in deep freeze for a couple of hours. To see other suggestions: do a search on -- laptop battery doesn't fully charge --. http://www.level8technology.com/servlet/the-template/Laptop-Battery-Not-Charging/Page

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! Your advice worked and my computer is almost back to normal. Goldie: that was my first thought, too (LOL)! Mary Lu, it wasn't you at all; just me trying to do too much :~) I basically just followed Camp56 and Ideefixe's instructions and it worked! I can't thank you both enough for taking the time to walk me through it!! Rose: the thumb drive idea is a good one for future problems. I never would have thought of that. Thanks! Olychick: you know, I'm embarrassed to say that I had no idea about that Restore feature. In the past, whenever I've had a problem DH has fixed it for me. I need to be more proactive. Allison: thanks for those recommendations. WIP: yes, they use a small outside IT firm; nobody in-house except DH. I was going to call them next if I couldn't find a solution here. Oakley: you're kidding?!? I made a mistake earlier saying that I deleted Norton, it was MacAffee, which I've had for quite a while. It ran every day, scanning for problems but never found a one . . . and I KNEW something was wrong before all of this. That's why I was looking for anti-virus programs. Hmmmmm. Graywings: Thanks! I'd forgotten that GW even had a computer forum and had never checked it out. But, I will definitely keep it on mind for future problems. Chickadee: Haha . . . that's for sure! DH would flip out if I screwed up his computer! Camp56: thanks for mentioning that about the two programs. That's good to know as I wasn't sure. Thanks again for all your help. It worked!!!! Lynn

Chispa, I just learned about the swelling and ruining of the Macbook issue, but the good news is that that is apparently a safety feature as the battery failure is contained by the laptop; with the others, they can apparently explode all over a room and set the house afire. I can't be replacing my Macbook at this time, so I really need to get my ancient battery replaced! Tina, from now on, I will always shut down when I'm not home, and will never leave it plugged in overnight or when I'm not home, either! I'm still kinda shocked at how careless I've been and how fortunate that I didn't create a disaster through my ignorance.