gabevanlelyveld

Hello again, thanks for the advice. I tried out SensorView on my laptop as well as another computer but apparently it doesn't have the sensors for temps or for the fans. It works for CPU and memory usage and all that. Anyway, I don't feel like I learned anything new.

About the rising temps, You said anything below 70 is okay but it starts getting hot to the touch and slows down considerably around 37 so I feel like that is the point at which temps are negatively affecting its performance and am hesitant to let it go any higher.

I looked at the Prime 95 site and couldn't figure out what it was you were talking about. I saw nothing to do with a torture test, just a bunch of stuff about searching for new prime numbers.

I feel at this point like my only hope lies in some kind of diagnostic software such as the 32 point test I downloaded from dell's website. If you had any advice about how to get that to run on my laptop (CD or floppy?, from in windows or through BIOS? I'm clueless.), I would be very grateful. If I could isolate the problem I might be able to fix it myself, which, frankly, is the only way that is financially logical--I could buy another laptop for the prices I've been quoted to have it looked at by the local computer store. Don't get me wrong, I love my laptop and want it to work very badly, but at this point, if it's toast I'm basically gonna part it out and look into getting a new one.

Thanks again. I look forward to hearing from you, Gabe