My old Computer(Windows XP operating system)eventually had to be taken away for a new DVD burner to be fitted and due to other problems(and including trying to fix a bug on these forums)it is now being reformatted and given back to me as a new machine.

So I decided to treat myself to a new machine(this one is Windows Vista)and we know at some point Windows XP will no longer be avaialble.

I already dislike the way the text is smaller(my eyesight isn't what it was)and making it larger still leaves a wide gap on the right of the screen and when made larger you then have to scan left and right and some text moves so the layout isn't quite correct.

That's a big error from my point of view. That should be changed to look like XP does. How does anyone cope? But it's coming to all of us sooner or later.

But more importantly a task that I use my computer for is causing me big problems and I am wondering if anyone out there has an answer.

I record my own mp3's of favourite programmes by playing programmes from the recorder I have onto hard drive and then convert them from wav to mp3.

I can do it but any of the hard drives I try keeps halting briefly so on playback they jump and stutter. With the old pc they ran smoothly. So until he returns I cannot tell if the program is to blame(not suitable for Windows Vista and that's causing problems)otherwise I'm not sure what I'll do. That is the main thing that I do. So all I planned to do since getting the new computer I've given up on. I haven't enough tapes to keep recording and saving them up and if they won't go onto hard drive properly, why bother?

Connected to this I used to be able to hear tapes played through the computer whilst they were being put onto hard drive, now I cannot hear them at all unless I use head phones connected to the recorder.

And I used to like being able to listen as the programmes were going onto the hard drive. Thus doing two jobs at once, hearing a programme that had been time shifted as it was being saved on computer making it easier to correct problems.
Now I can hear them through the computer but the program is getting no signal or I can have the signal coming through the computer but there is no input of signal into the program so nothing is recording to hard drive.

At least when the old pc comes back it should still work ok but it doesn't cure this problem.

Any advice appreciated.