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.

mikie, when I right click it and then click Eject, I get the message there is no disk inserted. Please insert disk and try again. I just realized that you tried helping me back in August with this blasted thing! On the F removable disk properties, the General tab shows this: Name: HP USB Device I don't understand this at all, as the only HP product I own is a 3 in 1 printer. Description: shows nothing State: The drive is empty Statistics: Mount 0 Last cleaned: Unknown Deferred dismounts: shows nothing Retain dismountable media for 5 minutes Enable drive is checked. Under the Device information: Manufacturer (Standard disk drives) Model: HP USB Device Serial number: shows nothing Revision: 1.00 Device Name: \\.\Physical Drive 2 Drive letter: F Device Address Port: Bus: Target: LUN Under the Security tab: Everything is checked to allow In disk management it shows Disk 2 Removable (F) No media

I think some of you guys missed the question - OP is ripping audio book CDs and experiences long rip times with SOME disks. OP, I've ripped a lot of CDs (large music collection) and have encountered this from time to time. You're right, sometimes it's because of scratches. Sometimes it's because a PC has limited memory and prior actions in the current on/off session have used too much of the limited space. Sometimes, the ripping software just doesn't like the CD. Sometimes, nothing seems to work. My suggestion is to turn your PC off, turn it on again, and try using a different program to rip the disk that seems stalled. Try Windows Media player. If no better, download and try Media Monkey for the rip. If no better, then I'd guess it's either a difficult disk or a drive problem.

Several months back I also had problems with my 4 year old HP laptop. The power adapter had to be wiggled for the darn thing to make a connection and keep power flowing to charge the battery and power the laptop. I took it to a shop that specializes in laptops and had it checked out. What was wrong was that where the adapter plugs in at the back was cracked inside from wear and needed to be replaced. The tech took apart the laptop and even showed me where the problem was. The new part had to be sodered (sp) so was not just a simple fix. With labor, parts and having them add another 500mgs of ram (Something I had been wanting to do for a long time.) it cost me around $300 for everything. Cheaper then a new one and works like a charm now. It should last a few more years until I'm ready to upgrade ;o)