Actually, I used the restore function on my PC and got it back to how it was before I started having the issues. However, after about an hour or so, I start to hear those static "ticks" again and see the progress line jumping. Then I shut down for the day.

As I mentioned earlier, Dell remoted in and did a hardware check - said everything was OK as far as system resources. They said I could contact their software support for a "nominal fee" which I have not done yet.

Well see....