It would have been a year or so ago when Dell responded to my message. She mentioned she was from Dothan which is about 3 hours from where we plan on moving and I think there is a good nursery there which might be worth the drive. Vicki

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Raven and Owbist, I am so grateful to you. It seems I am safe using the screws for the hard drive bay that I already used. Raven - they are the ones in the first link. Owbist - I pilfered the only screw from my old Dell desktop that looked like the right kind. I only found one screw that seemed to match - I'm not certain what it was holding in - perhaps the power source or fan. At any rate, I think I best replace that before I might ever try to start that old computer up. I don't believe it had a floppy drive - or I'd be happy to remove it (it had just a cd drive). The case is fairly secure for now - but I'd feel better securing it completely - if the cleaning woman bumps the vacuum against it - or my daughter roots around there for a lost ball or toy, it might accidentally open. There's no urgency there, but I'd rather get it taken care of. I suppose I could open the tower again - and take out one of the screws - and match it at a store that builds computer parts. But if I don't have to, I'd rather not power everything down and unhook it. If the hard drive seems securing screwed in (and no part of the screw is protuding), can I safely assume it's fine - and just worry about replacing the case screws. that would be easier. I wish I'd come here first - and saved myself some aggravation. not a single person at Dell was able to give me this information - even though they had all the information you guys did. I truly don't want to have to buy from them again. They were similarly inept when I wanted to add a firewire port last summer. They have a front slot for it - but nobody had the right part numbers. Luckily the Dell forum was filled with trials and tribulations of others who'd attempted this - with no consistent accurate answers from Dell. At least someone there provided the necessary parts - in fact, when I ordered what Dell insisted was all I needed, it was only 1/2 of what I needed. Soon my daughter will be ready for a new desktop. Is there a company to buy them from with good reliability and quality and good technical/customer support? Should I just have one built from a computer place that builds computers? that purchase is likely to be in 2010. Thank you again. Lynn.

And make sure they are plugged in the proper port. I've done it. Had my tower out of the computer stand for cleaning. Put it back and had no sound. Plugged the speakers in the mike jack. Duh! Also, here's some suggestions I made in a recent post: If you have a multimedia keyboard check the mute button. Also the volume buttons. If you have volume controls on your monitor check them. If you have a speaker icon in the System Tray (by the clock) check it. If you have a mixer/audio manager icon in the System Tray check it. On the Control Panel open the Sound Folder and check the settings. On the Control Panel check to see if you have an audio manager folder, i.e. Realtek. Open it check the settings. Open Windows Help and in the search bar enter "sound troubleshoot" sans quotes. Informational data will appear. DA

It's looking like a hardware problem then. The usual suspects are bad cable connection (internal), bad power inverter or bad lcd screen. ( in order of expense and somewhat in order of likelihood). It's very possible with the white screen that it's just a cable connection problem. It could also be a bad motherboard, and usually you connect an external monitor to rule that out but in this case you can't do that. Usually when this kind of thing happens, the screen goes black, but you can see the screen using a flashlight. But you're saying it goes from black to white. This still indicates one of the above four suspected hardware issues. Some links : LCD screen turned completely white http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop-lcd-screen-turned-white/ Fixing Common Laptop Problems (middle of page) http://www.pbcomp.com.au/laptop-notebook-troubleshoot.html There is an online service manual available if you want to have a couple of beers and start taking it apart - check those cable connections - but it sounds like you're not comfortable with that. That's where the beers come in. ;-)