Has anybody else done a Win 7 install lately and found that it is impossible to add Google to the list of IE search providers? I've done several Win 7 setups in the last week, and always the same result. With IE8, an attempt to add Google as a search provider results in an error indication at the...

after 4.5 years of many hours/day, my Vostro 1500 has: -the lettering on some keys wore off before 1 yr -power cord is fraying after 4 years -two broken hinges -a minor thing: the feet fell off years ago Since I've been shopping online this week, I see many reports of HPs and other brands...

Hi, this Vostro 1500 laptop's hinge is floppy after 4.5 years of use. Any tips on tightening it?

I used that ActiveX to get my service tag number at dell's site. How can I now delete it? MS's site says to right-click and choose 'Remove' from C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files but that option does not appear when I actually try to do it. Neither does it appear in Add/Remove Programs......

My laptop won't power on. It's probably the power button itself, but in order to replace the button the whole laptop needs to be taken apart. It's not that old but the power button is in the hinge (not a good design) and has apparently frayed the wire. Anybody know a good fix?

I'm beginning to look into replacing my Dell Dim 8300 which I brought in Jan 2004. It's been a great performer, but am experiencing a few problems with it now. I updated to Vista when it came out, but had to back off and do a clean reinstall of XP as Vista would not work very well on it. So, my...

Can I upgrade my Dim 5100? I currently have a 3.0GHz P4HT (P4 630) with 1GB Ram, what''s the fastest processor I could pop onto the mobo to replace my P4? Should I expect it to simply 'just work'? J

I am using a couple different boards 0FG015 and they work fine but I can not get a green light on the aux pwr light on the board. It is always amber. I have changed cpu's, power supplies, fans, ram, hard drives, video cards, etc. No issues show up on the dell diagnostics, so why always the amber...

At we have Charter cable with a Motorola 5101 plugged into a Linksys wireless router. The desktop (Vostro 230/W7) is wired to the router. Laptops are both XP. Lately (after 3 months of speedy page loading) the desktop has slowed-down to a crawl and sometimes unusable for surfing. The wireless is...

I'm going to daisy chain two routers. Why are you supposed to disable DHCP on the secondary (downstream) router? Is this mandatory? Thanks.

I've got 81 processes running. I'm trying to whittle those down. Maybe I'm not doing it right. In Task Manager, I'm right clicking on a process and choosing "end process". A few minutes later, it's back. This particular process is (Apple) MobileDeviceService. I don't need it. How do I...

My Dim 5100 will not record audio via the attached stick mic. I've downloaded and installed the SigmaTel driver and the HD driver from the Dell website, but still no luck. I can play audio files okay btw. The mic is fine and it's in the correct port, any advice? I use Win XP Home. J

I've been shopping for an XPS Studio 8300 for months now. I did have one picked out on Black Friday from Dell with i7-2600, a 1 TB hard drive, 8 GB memory, a basic Raedon 6450 video card and included a 21.5" monitor for $951.99. Today I stumbled upon...

Hi all I have an old dell dimension 8300 that I had apart for some years and have just put in a new power supply reloaded Windows XP. Now I have Outlook Express again and can post to this news group, everything is working fine. It has been on for about three weeks and everything is fine. ...

I have a Dimension 9200. I now back up my computer using Acronis which makes mirror images of the drive(s). Should I bother also backing up the RECOVERY partion? Just exactly what is that partion? I presume it's a copy of what was installed on the C drive when I purchased the computer back in...

I have a Dell Inspiron 1721 laptop sitting here with a dead battery. Battery has never been used - but went dead sitting on the shelf. It is a 9 pin connector. I know the 2 pins on one end are the pos, and on the other end are the neg ( not sure which is which) and there is a battery atert, system...

Hope someone can help. I used to run 32-bit Vista (I know, I know) on a Dell XPS-430. I had a video capture card which was powering my CCTV system and everything was fine. I'm now running 64-bit W7 on a Dell XPS-7100 and there are no 64-bit drivers for the capture card. I've installed VMware...

On Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:36:48 -0500, SMF wrote: Here is the update. The Dell XPS 1530 (and a number of other units from about 3 years ago) have a defective NVIDA chip. There was a class action lawsuit about this and Dell extended the warranty an additional year but...

I have just installed Win XP Home on my Dell Dim 5100, but for some reason the system can't find my onboard lan/nic, so I have no internet access. I have a cd with some drivers on it, but don't know which hardware I have and windows keeps saying it needs to go online to download a driver. I have...

Got my daughter's old laptop back and I decided to try to format it. Problem is it won't boot up. On the device status lights, the 2nd from the left (4 total) flickers fast then goes out as the laptop seems to want to boot up. The manual says this light "turns on when the computer reads and...