No one wants to set off an opinion war. The crazy thing about computers is that two people can get the same basic machine,, and due to unique configurations and use have completely different results. Our office manager told me he had to rebuild his hard drive ( he had no backup) due to a microsoft auto install- restart. Its really not so much dell and probably not so much creative as it is microsoft-- vista was a huge turkey from the get go. If 7 doesnt get any better I think there'll be a revolt. But beware the new "digital rights management" features in windows 7 -- talk about creating some unintended consequences!

I may have some deep problems but when I restore if I can manage to keep microsofts automatic tinkering at bay everything works fine, perfectly as far as I can tell. BIAB plays flawlessly, real tracks and all.

Thanks to all who contribute to questions here because sometimes it really makes the differnce between success and failure. I have put the experinces I have had only to hopefully save people my hours of learning the hard way. IF you'er not backing up your drive you are on the road to disaster!