Okay. You guys are great. Clearly the collective wisdom is not to throw money at the problem - but figure the problem out. Owbist - in my thread on not connecting my husband's vista laptop to our network, I tried quietly, methodically to troubleshoot the issues - to no avail. I found lots of similar frustrations on google - but no solutions that worked - and I think I tried them all - at least to the best of my ability. thanks for those great, easy-to-follow instructions to transfer to an external hard drive. He'll want to do that anyway - even if he keeps this computer. This computer guy is pricey - but where I am in DC they seem to fall in the $125-140/hour range - and they can usually fix a problem. Others that charge $40-75 - that the uninformed think are good - but their know-how is less than what I find here. I tried a few of those locally recommended guys - and they accomplished the simple tasks but also made mistakes I had to hire the more expensive guy to fix. My main complaint with him is that he's wedded to his biases - he hates Vista - so his recommendation is usually to avoid or ditch it. Our struggles with Vista seem to often be how often we're blocked from things or performing simple tasks have all sort of obstacles - for "safety's" sake. Thanks to everyone for pointing out that Windows 7 is just a revamped Vista. I got my first issue of Smart Computing and they were tauting it and described some features I thought I'd love. DA - if W8 is in process, is there any indication of what it will be like? Probably worth waiting for - or at least waiting to hear more about how Windows 7 is panning out. So I'll keep plugging away on my other thread to get him connected. If I don't succeed by Tuesday, the computer guy will come and fix it. I guess we'll stop there. Thanks. Lynn.

If mine, as soon as I saw the first signs of live on the display I would push and hold in the power button for maybe 5 seconds - which will cause a hardware reset. Then if still no go... I would be tapping the F8 key to try to get to the special Startup menu... Then choose startup repair. If you cant get to the startup menu you need to know how to boot from DVD, which a few ways on mine.. One is maybe F2 or F10, or F11.. I forget quickly after power up. Another way is Ctrl + C or Ctrl + D quickly after power on. To boot off a Windows7 repair disc, or windows 7 install disc DVD, to get to its StartUp repair function. If you don't have a win7 install dvd or startup repair dvd disc, you can make a StartUp Repair disc/DVD/CD off of another win7 computer with same matching bits. . x64 or 32 bit. This post was edited by mikie on Sun, Feb 9, 14 at 17:11

Thanks, pkponder! I called Toshiba as you advised and was told that the hardware was covered for 1 year. I have to find the receipt and then contact the warranty department on Monday to make arrangements to send it in to Toshiba. Thanks again.

Yes, letting it sit over nite really does not matter, they heat up instantly, Does it feel hot? The other possibility is it is a (BSOD) Do you see a blue screen right before it shuts down? They can occur very quickly & you may miss it. it is a blue screen with an error on it, If that is the case try this setting after you do you will now be able to see blue screen error, we would need this error to help you, here are the steps 1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. Click the Advanced tab. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect. Now when you go to shut down and a fatal error occurs, you'll at least see it and it won't cause an automatic reboot. You still have to sort out what's causing the problem.