Gerry, just to update you. I'm typing this using my old SHARP, Laptop B, as I've managed to mess up laptop A!!!!
I followed Sony's advice: Did the BIOS update. Computer still froze.
Did a backup of my C: drive to D: and then a recovery of C: as per Sony's advice. This put it back to XP with Service Pack 1, Norton/Symantec anti-virus and Firewall. Loaded my software, computer still froze. They now say that it needs to be repaired. (I could've told them that a year ago). I'm waiting for them to call me since yesterday.
NOW, I then loaded about 50 Microsoft updates, then Service Pack 2, before restoring the backup from D: back to my C: drive. Everything OK, EXCEPT the laptop takes about 30-45 minutes to respond to any click on the screen. It's barely operating at all. Has this anything to do with the BIOS update I wonder?
My laptop is now useless.
I feel like throwing it in the bin and buying a Dell!!
Why oh why oh why did I do the recovery? I should've just left it alone and let it freeze. I could use it for emails, Skype and playing games at least. Now it's useless.
Should I try the recovery and restore all over again? Should I have done the MS updates and SP2 before the restore? What about the BIOS update?
Any suggestions gratefully received!!
Kevin
PS. Thank goodnes for this old slow, 192MB, Pentium 3, Windows 2000, Sharp. It's keeping me alive!!! It runs everything perfectly!