>>My guess is it's not a Windows problem. Either bad hardware or driver.
>>
>>>Both have crapped out on me.
>
>I wonder if it could be a problem with RAM -- I had that happen to me on my old XP box when I first got it. It would work OK for a month or two, then would on occasion hiccup with weird problems, then finally not able to boot at all. After the second time I'd reinstalled Windows, I decided to locate a hardware diagnostic program and start running various tests. Sure enough, found out that one of the memory modules was bad. After replacing it (and reinstalling Windows again for good measure), everything worked OK for a number of years.


I've run all the Dell Diagnostics that test the memory for a long, long time.

Mostly, the problem centers around Windows Update not working where it never finishes running or it kicks out an error number and you google the error number and the MS people give these bogus solutions and the end user keeps telling them that it still doesn't work and the MS person simply gives the same standard answer again and again.

Then you call MS Support and they work it for awhile and escalate it up and finally they tell you you've got to do a "refresh".

I've skipped going to MS Support and use the Dell Premier support because the guys at Dell seem to know their stuff better than the lower level MS guys.

I no longer know the error number, but here's a whole page full of them.

http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/archive/windows_update_codes.htm