With certain "brand name" systems, there is often enough customization at various levels that I'd see all sorts of weird issues -- usually you need to make sure you get the model-specific drivers and *never* try to install the generic ones that get pushed from Microsoft Update (of course, this tends to happen even if you don't have a "brand name " system -- learned early on that whenever Windows Update wanted to push a driver update, I should tag that update to be hidden, then go look for the updated drivers at the hardware manufacturer's site).

>I'm still betting on a hardware or driver issue.
>
>>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.
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>>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