had you gone to windows updates and got the multitude of updates you would need after using recovery material to re install windows? If not that is probably what happened it started trying to download and install all those many updates and it locked it up. You may have even needed service pack 2 and 3 with a unit that old. plus of course all your antivirus programs etc would be trying to update also. It is always best when doing that kind of recovery where you will be very very far behind in windows updates to turn off automatic updates and go manually to windows update and first get your service packs in order and be absolutely sure to reboot the computer after each service pack, then get any remaining updates. I usually suggest getting them in small batches and creating a restore point before each service pack and before each batch of updates. Should something go wrong you have a good restore point to return to.

Lenovo & Toshiba laps I've had both recommended leaving the battery in place. Protects it when power failure too when on ac. The Lenovo has a setting for 50% charge to prolong the life of the battery if on ac always. Replacement batteries are about 100 bucks ! laptop is only 4 months new Warrantied I would assume .. and what you describe matches my oldest Toshiba ... either the power circuit had confusion for some reason, or the power circuit has a problem. If it does it again I certainly would phone the support line. Toshiba told me to send mine in and I didn't thinking it was just one of those rare things that occasionally goof up... until it died completely - after the warrantee ended. Ps; The cmos battery according to Toshiba, would only gain charge with the battery in place too. This post was edited by mikie on Tue, Mar 26, 13 at 18:38

AZ, I understand what you are saying, but Emma makes a lot of sense. If users are not prepared for progress we would all still be using Commodores or in the least Win3.1. We have a whole bunch of Dell XP SP2 systems in our building. Six in our office alone. Ours are going to be replaced by a governmental entity due to security, non-MS software demand, and future anticipated expansion. You can bet many of the other offices will have to replace their systems via their budget as their offices have systems integrated for use with our data. And, we did survive without a burp when we switched from Win98 and Win2000 to WinXP. Bobbie, Hope you are sitting down. You know how I was dragged kicking and screaming into the post Win98 era as I loved my Win98 system. And, yes you know I love my Vista system even more and have defended it for all the bad publicity it received. My plans right now is to buy a entry to mid-level laptop with W8 just so I can play. See why I said I hope you were sitting down. Even though I think there is way too much going on now with the Internet, and can only guess as to what the future will bring we users have a choice. Be part of it or allow it to pass us by. Do I think everyone with a W7 should race out and purchase a W8? Of course not. However, two generations of O/S behind could become the future limit. DA

That's a good question. I was using a Dell Inspiron 4000 w/ windows 2000 professional and before that a Compaq latitude (I think) also with Win2000 professional. The compaq had a lot of the typical corporate stuff on it, like outlook, office, etc. Both of these computers took at least 3 minutes to get up and running, despite turning off apps from start-up, periodically running antivirus, ad-aware, etc., and also defragging and running disc-clean-up. Based on all this, and also through conversations with strangers on their laptops (in places like Panera, starbucks, etc.) I thought that a couple minutes was typical. If I could get the Inspiron to boot in less than a minute I would keep it. But right now it's too aggravating to use. Any advice on that would be greatly appreciated.