[LindaJean]

Hello!

I bought a Dell desktop pc about three weeks ago and have noted several problems at this time. I've followed advice that I've researched to no avail. The problems are as follows:

1.) Pages take a LONG time to load, oftentimes a "web page cannot be found" pop up appears.

2.) Anything I try to download (i.e. winamp, avg, avast, or anything at all will show a ridiculous time frame in the download manager for the download to occur (i.e. 5 hours or more). Then, it NEVER downloads. I either get a "files corrupt, try download again" (which never works either), or "blah blah (whatever the program is) is not a valid win 32 application....etc."

3.) WinMedia 11 buffers terribly, the drop out is several minutes long every 5-10 seconds, despite the corrections I've made as advised. This applies even to archived radio shows, not live streaming programs.

Even though the pc is only a few weeks old, the tech had me wipe the OS and return it to factory status. This accomplished nothing, and for the usual reasons I'm reluctant to call India again.

I have a Toshiba laptop Vista that is one year old, and Snuffy and Felix were very kind to help me with it's quirks. I hope I can be helped again with these problems with my new Dell.

I sincerely thank any and all in advance who may help. Whatever questions/advice are offered I will attend to as time permits, so please don't think I'm not interested if I cannot promptly reply.

Some facts:

I'm on dial-up (and do NOT have these problems with my laptop).

My ISP is MSN.

My pc is a:

Dell Inspiron 530S Vista Home Basic

E2160 Processor @1.80 GHz Intel Pentium Dual

250 GB HD

2 GB memory (2037MB)

32 bit OS

CD/DVD RW

As an aside, what ISP would be suggested? Sometimes I have more problems with MSN ....they sent me the MSN 9.5, but admitted they have problems with Vista. I've had it for years and am reluctant to switch to something that may be just as troublesome.