not sure what to title this

Running Me, IE6 and Eudora 6.2 on a DELL Dimension 4100
all critical updates are done
Last month 12-13 Eudora finally came out with a fix for Version 6.2 a minor nuisance, when receiving junk mail it would alert you (alert should only be for new mail) anyway it took them 6 weeks to get the fix out. After installing a few days later my comuter started doing weird things. Sorry, video display problems occurred. Call Dell spent hours on the phone and each time at the end they got me working again, good looking screen, etc. However the problem keeps happening.I started keeping copious notes on what I was doing, running etc. No luck.Computer kept freezing. Mostly when I would copy something from Internet and paste it in the mai program. That's when the next problem started by rebooting instead of shut down, the video display came back really bad. Several times went to Device manager and found display adapter with an exclamation point. Put in the Dell resolution disc after removing dispaly adapter and back to work. Yet again could not change display properties. I know I am rambling because it has been almost 4 weeks and still I having problems and their technical support is lacking. Went through holidays with some headaches but (I am a novice) I was able to get it back working, mostly constant shup down. On the 1st I upgraded Quick Books Pro 2005. It took it fine and I used the program. On the 4th we had video problems again, Called Dell they went through the checklist and "fixed it" but the problem returned yesterday. Yesterday we spent 8 hours on phone with 3 different people and in the end only through luck the girl went into BIOS, boot configuration and changed the middle option to Yes. When rebooted it looked good. I was tired shutdown and went to bed... Anyway I opened up okay this morning but when I went to use Quick Books the updated program was no longer there and none, NONE of my data was there. Then I went to use my UPS program for shipping and it also would not run. Called Dell, really did not want to but complained about the lack of support, got a reply "really sorry about that ". The guy tried a system restore but it did not work. Now he wants me to back up the computer so he can format the disk. First of all I do not know how or what I need to back up and whether or not this is even a good idea. Please help.
Thanks
matthew

 

I can't diagnose what the problem is, but can tell you how to backup your userfiles. Do you have a cd writer and software for it? Otherwise you're reduced to floppys.

First, check to see if ME's backup utility is on the system - Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup. If Backup is not there, and it may not be because it's not installed by default then install it from your ME installation disc.

Browse the ME disc - open "add-ons" folder, then the "msBackup" folder. Double-click the "msbexp.exe" icon. This will install it in to the location above and reboot.

The first time you run it, it tries to find a tape backup device and offers to run the Add Hardware wizard, click No to proceed. Once Backup is running, you can build a list of folders and files to backup. A wizard walks you through the creation of this list.

Don't bother backing up any Windows files - Program folder (all programs will have to be re-installed) or any System file. Backup things like My Documents, any file/folders you created containing Data Base files - media files - Doc - text and so on.

Those backup folders will then have to be burned out by seperate cd writing software.

You can also drag and drop the folders that you want to backup into one or two backup folders. If all your stuff is larger than 650 MBs, it has to be split into multiple parts for two or more cd's.

Regards - Charles