Perhaps the update and the concern are unrelated. However, a prudent person could conclude they are. Since this is a post-update concern have you thought about removing the focus update if you can? If you can get in Safe Mode, open Windows Update and then its history. The information for uninstalling an update will be available there. Not all updates can be removed. Not focusing on Amity, but for the benefit of those reading the thread, this is an example of why users are alerted against updating audio and video drivers when the system is operating properly without the update. In other words, please consider leaving well enough alone. Make note of what's available, what the change log is, and where it is located. Also, often hardware manufacturer drivers released through Microsoft are already obsolete due to lag time. If something needs to be updated a visit to the manufacturer's website first is advisable. DA

Eviem I understand you reluctance to get inside your computer case but this is nothing more than simple maintenance. Shut down and remove the power cord from the rear. Look at the rear of your tower on the left side, there should be 2 screws or a proprietary gadget holding the left side on. Remove those screws, slide the left side panel back and off. Now have a look. Half the job is already done now. Look in at the bigger board fasten to the right side and you will see a fan raised off the motherboard. Look between the blades to see if it is filled with dust. If so place a finger on the fan and squirt your compressed air can liberally around the fan and underneath. Put the side back on, connect the power cord and start the computer and you are done apart from putting the can of air away. Simple huh? Why spend $60 and up for a less than 5 minute job.

There's nothing wrong with Vista and I think you should look a little deeper for your problem. I went with my girlfriend last week and she purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Vista Home Basic Edition, 2GB RAM, 200GB Hard drive. First thing I did was remove Norton 360 through control panal/uninstall and then install AVG Anti-Virus. She wanted Photoshop installed, no problem. Next was Microsoft Office 2007, started installing and bam computer shuts down completely. I think heat, you know that they are always warm on the bottom, but no as long as there is a little clearance on the bottom for air, they'll run for hours and days on end. Decided to uninstall the trial of the preinstalled Student Microsoft Office thinking there was a conflict with the Pro version I was trying to install, went to control panel/uninstall and tried to remove the student version, bam again computer shuts down completely. Did a search on the internet for vista shuts down and the best info I could find was that it's programs running in the background causing conflicts. I remembered the Norton Removal Tool and downloaded, ran and removed all traces. Went to msconfig and took a look at the programs running at startup and thus running in the background, installed CCleaner ccsetup209_slim.exe, my preferred tool (Tools/Startup) for disabling startup and unnecessary programs from running in the background. After that Microsoft Office installed perfect and the machine has never shutdown again. Next time I have the laptop, all the bundled software is coming off, who needs it. So what I'm saying is that there is a conflict with a program that's running in the background and whatever you're doing at the time the machine shuts down. Duel boot is fine, you'll need an XP disk, $100 or less. Make a separate partition to install it on. Really very simple, less than an hour if you know what your doing. With a duel boot, you're given the choice or either booting into XP or Vista or set one as the default. I have both, doesn't matter which I use, both perform equally. First thing I'd do is remove all the bundled software that came with the machine that you don't need, especially Norton that comes preinstalled with the Toshiba Satellite and get a good Anti-Virus program. You should also have Vista Service Pack 1 installed by now.

Yeah, I don't know about that resistive load thing, either. Nor why they ask for it in series. That would tend to divide the voltage between the motor and the light, sort of like an old-fashioned TV repairman's "Dimbulb" tester. My big desktop Mac with hefty power supply pulls 3 amps (360 watts) according to the info on the rear panel. A monitor probably doesn't use much, maybe running the brightness lower or shutting it off while doing a long task would extend the time you could be "off the grid." If you have an LCD monitor, that probably would use next to nothing. Same for the hubs and other powered accessories. A wallwart could probably run them. Inverters used to be known for having a "rough" AC waveform, maybe they are still that way. Thus, they're kinda noisy and the voltage is not held as true to 120v as one might like. With a large load, the AC output voltage will drop lower. Most computer supplies could probably handle a drop to near 100 volts, but I'd want to give the inverter a few brief tests before launching that overnight task. I kinda like the idea you had of running the UPS off the inverter. That way, it will filter the inverter's AC waveform and help make up the difference if the inverter's voltage drops or is too rough-edged. When an inverter quits, there's not much warning, so you also get that added little safety buffer provided by the UPS. We had a late spring storm a couple weeks ago. We got 18 inches, but the lines held in our area. Just a few miles up the road quite a bit more snow fell, my sister lost power for a few days and some folks up north of here are still without power, as over 800 poles went down. No way are we gonna run our household for two weeks off one of these gadgets, but with a little power management you could get a few hours a day of internet, plus some minimal lighting and other uses. My dad built a motor driven car alternator gadget that he used to charge batteries. It wasn't the best arrangement, but it did work! Speaking of this low-buck "off the grid" stuff, I've read about people who ran strings of LED lights using the voltage available on their phone lines and got "free" electricity for their home lighting! -Ed