Thanks for all the suggestions; to clarify I am running XP SP3. I neglected to mention my efforts in Task Manager prior to posting, they had led to naught. But the comments reinvigorated my efforts and I was amply rewarded. It is not clear which process was the villain as one scenario (closing Skype for example) would do the trick once, but the next time it required closing Ad Aware.
What's peculiar is that this is a new characteristic and nothing has been changed or altered to give rise ot the problem (perhaps with the exception of some MS updates). Anyway, thanks for the feedback you have all set me on the trail and I am reassured that my "two weeks to end of warranty" T43 hardware is not the problem stuartf _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
