Dear Gabe. My name is Keith. Wile I have never had a silent computer, I have crashed my computer, and removed the drivers for my sound card once with out using my Braille 'n Speak as the hardware synthesizer, and that was stupid. I have a solution for you if you find that Windows does not start normally. On my system, this happens alot. 1. Before Windows starts, but after power-on tests have completed, press control. The Microsoft Windows startup menu appears. SafeMode is one of the choices. You could try booting Windows in SafeMode then rebooting to see if the issue of Windows starting is fixt. Hope this information helps you, and anyone else experienceing problems with Windows startup, or anyone using Windows in general. Regards, Keith. To post a message to the list, send it to jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a message to jfw-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.