Just to add: 1 GB memory stick for Dell Inspiron 1501 for $ 18.99.
Thanks for all your suggestions. I will try them. We’ll see. I could go on nickle and diming you all with questions and complaints. If you wouldn’t mind oblinging, just say so. I wouldn’t say I’m computer illiterate. I’m a great tinker arounder and I prefer to do things myself if at all possible, rather than take it to a “proffesional.” Maybe I’m just a cheap bastard. I just want my computer to work better.
Remember the recent MS add series wherein they featured happy dumpy middle age people who would start out saying something like “A while ago, I had an idea…” Then it would flash back to when they were young fit hipster duffuses in the shower or in a taxi cab and they’d proclaim some vague general revelation like “Computers should work better.” Then it would flash forward again back to the happy dumpy person who would vapidly expound in 5 seconds how now their computer worked better. And the ending corker was always “I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea.” So the basic message there was that those people people grew fat and old waiting for their computer to work better. But at least they got what they were waiting for. I’m fat and old and pissed off because my computer still works like shit.