A Windows 7 upgrade sounds good to me.

I ran it for years on my old laptop which died (a fatal HD crash) a few months ago after seven years service - I was happy with it.

Chrome supports Windows 7 so you should be able to get the latest version of it, including current Shockwave/Flash which, with luck, will solve your issues.

Just came back with my newly restored WINDOWS 7 upgrade.

Everything worked fine in the guy's shop. I get it home, plug it in press the power button, it started to load, then I got a blank screen. I powered it off, started in safe mode, selected START WINDOWS NORMALLY (or whatever it said).

AND VOILA!!! I am on the internet. Of course I had to put in my wi fi password which worked, the computer indicated I was connected but it said it wasn't connected but now IT'S CONNECTED.

I guess there are always bugs when you bring a newly upgraded computer or laptop home.

I am on youtube. I can WATCH MY VIDEOS.

THANK GOD.

All for $35.00 and the price of a new Dell Inspiron charger which was $30 so who on earth cares.

It just shows how addicted we are to our devices.

Hey, at least I don't drink!!

lol

Melody

Melody, that is excellent news !

Okay, here is what happened this morning. I turned on the laptop, the lights blinked on, but I waited and I waited and NOTHING. Blank Blue Screen (I asked the Optimum Guy last night other questions and mentioned this and he explained that when you first turn on a computer it has to load all the drivers and sometimes it takes longer.

So this morning, I turned it on, WAITED, got a blank blue screen, hit the power button, held it down so it would turn off. Waited a while, hit the power button again, knowing it would prompt me to do the Safe Mode thing, I selected Safe mode and then hit restart and it's fine.

Made a video just to show you what happened. I'd like to know (before I bring this back to the computer guy, if any of you know what I can do to avoid all this safe mode stuff. I just want to turn it on and have it boot up to Windows 7. Oh, one more thing. Yesterday I knew I would be away for an hour so I hit the sleep mode. When I came back and touched the touch pad on the keyboard, I got a screen that said 'Owner has locked, then another choice was "switch users"

I just selected "owner has locked" and my Windows 7 desktop screen popped up.

So here's the video I made this morning and if anyone has any clue what I can do. (see I am still learning all this cool stuff). It's amazing that at 68 I even know what the h I am doing, as all my friends have no computers, no tablets, and I'm lucky if they even have a cell phone. lol

YouTube

Thanks much. Melody

If your hard drive or some other hardware is getting ready to die, due to age or other problems, that will make booting unpredictable..
Rebooting may work for awhile , until it totally stops working..

I couldn't see the video.. but computers don't last forever...you can replace parts if it is cost effective to do that, but sometimes not worth it on older machines...

Melody, a "blank blue screen", sometimes called the Blue Screen Of Death is not a good sign.

Getting a BSOD often usually suggests a hardware problem.

The info here about Safe Mode might help; What is safe mode? - Windows Help in terms of trouble-shooting.

As Jo*mar has implied, maybe (if funds allow) the time has come to think about a new machine?

Cant afford a new anything. All money goes to Alan'd copays, bills, etc. We owe from all the hospitalizations from last year. It is what it is. Alan could have died ladt eeek from food poisoning. Thank god I had activated charcoal in the house. But to be alone in NYC with no one to call and he was so dehydrated, well I just cant put us in that situation again.

But he is fine , eating me out of house and home.

Anyway I have a quedtion. My laptop worked fine last night. Was able to watch movies. Vifro quslity was exceptional. This morning it turned on just fine. I am not home now so I am on my Kindle Fire. Here's my situation. I use my laptop as a desktop. No battery. Been doing thid for three years.

With no problem. I never touch the charger. Last night after watching videos, i touched the charger, it was hot (the brick part I mean) not the eires coming out of each end of the brick. I went online and it seels people attach fans to the charger so it doesnt overheat. I have a bettrr idea. I have lots of those frozen ice packs in my freezer. Cant i take one, wrap in a towel, place brick on to so it stays cool. It would not get wet at all. What do you all think?

Thanks so much.

Melody

NEW THINGS HAPPENING WITH THIS COMPUTER. Need to pick all your brains.

Last night the MCaffee anti virus guy (I get that with Optimum Services) helped me download this huge anti-virus software ( I had this with Vista also). My internet kept fluctuating. (his words). I went to my router and made sure all connections were secure (I had moved the router earlier and maybe I knocked something loose??) After that, all was well. Anti-virus software downloaded. No problem.

I then called Optimum tech support and said "I want to also turn my laptop into a tv please help me download the Optimum App on my laptop.

We did it together, tested it, no problem. So last night I added TWO huge programs to my computer.

Oh, FYI, I went to see how much memory is on my computer and this is what it said

39.1 GB FREE of 74.5 GB


Under System it said
Installed Memory (RAM) 2.5 GB
32 Bit operating system.

This morning I went to turn on my computer . Lights were flashing. no Windows 7 screen. Did this again. Same thing.

Powered it off, safe mode screen popped up asking me if I wanted to start in Normal Mode. I selected that. Nothing again.

I then powered it off, safe mode screen popped up asking if I wanted to start in safe mode. I clicked on Start in Safe Mode. It did, all icons appeared. I then went to bottom left, selected Restart, and it came up just fine and there was my Windows 7 screen and I am online and here posting this question.

Why is this happening. I don't want to keep bringing this computer back and forth if this is something I can fix myself.

Does the fact that I added two BIG programs to this computer make it harder to load up in the morning.

Something with my startup folder. What do I need to uncheck (if anything I mean) to make this load in a normal way when I power it up in the morning?

I actually waited 20 minutes initially this morning for that Windows 7 screen to appear. Nothing. Like I said it took 3 tries, only to necessitate me going into Safe Mode to be able to restart this thing.

I wonder if at night I should just put it to sleep and see what happens the next morning,.

What happens in the morning when I power it up? All the drivers have to load and programs have to load? And do I have enough RAM? Do you think I should add more RAM? When the optimum guy was helping me download the Optimum App, I told him I had 2.5 gb of ram and he said that was plenty.

I just want to know if maybe I need to change something in the Startup folder to make this load up normally in the morning when I turn it on.

Thanks so much

And if you need me to provide any more info on this 18 inch monster, just ask and I'll supply it.

Melody

Does hard drive make any unusual sounds or clinks - that it didn't before?
Have you or anyone run disk check, to check for bad sectors on HD (hard drive)?
Check your hard disk for errors in Windows 7
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2641432
and
Resolving stop (blue screen) errors in Windows 7

Since this is a fairly new fresh install , the OS should not be messed up yet..unless the HD is an issue..and the HD is messing up the OS...

your Ram is fine