Hi eliot, Welcome. Well it will be either good news or bad news but lets try the system approach ten troubleshooting. Very mechanic-like method: Theory: Water under pressure come from a source (house or street) to your automatic-solenoid operated valves. The number of valves indicated the number of areas(zones or stations) your controller operates automatically. The valves operate each zone separately and provide water to the irrigation heads via the underground pipes. That is all there is. Troubleshooting: 1. Check the source and make sure it is turned on. Record what happens. 2. Make sure water is getting to the valves. 3. Remove the nozzles from the irrigation heads and check for clogged filters or heads. 4. Turn on each valve manually by turning the solenoid counterclockwise until the water comes on. Record what happens. 5. Flush the line without nozzles and start and stop the zone with solenoid and replace nozzles closest to the valve and work your way replacing nozzles until all heads are flushed clean. 6. Replace any valve that gives you problems. 7. Check the wires to the solenoids and make sure they have good contact and are not separated or loose. Check the controller electrical hookup for power and that electricity is getting to the solenoids. Record what happens. 8. Do you have a vacuum Breaker shut-off valve at the beginning of your system? Are you on municipal water or well water? It would be good to know your pressure and flow from your source. Would like to find how to do that? Let us know what results you get and we can fine tune the method. Others will pitch in with things I forgot or that can be done better. Read past threads also. Aloha

Hi ronalawn, If it was my job I would check the voltage and amperage to the controller and install a new one. They are not very expensive compared to how important they are and how many problems they can cause. I believe your valve assumptions are correct but I can't be sure without seeing them and trying a few things to isolate each valve and see what happens. The main valve may be a vacuum breaker valve that may have been installed to low. It should be at the entrance to a valve manifold that branches out into the three zones. Again just a guess. Try turning each valve's solenoid (not enough to unscrew it completely). The valve should start operating the zone if the main valve is open. Give us an update. Aloha

Mlou, restoring a computer to factory defaults is a bit time consuming but once done you can be very pleasantly surprised. As noted, gather all your program CDs and save any pertinent data. Then double check to ensure you have it all. If this is XP you only need to install SP3 afterwards, no need for SP1 or SP2. After that there are currently about 107 updates to install which depending on the speed of your computer and internet connection may take 90 minutes or so. You might consider downloading SP3 beforehand and burning it to a CD, that way it can be installed with the internet connection disabled for protection. I also keep Microsoft Security Essentials on a thumb drive to be installed after SP3 (it will not work without SP3) so that once I connect again I am relatively safe. Which ever anti virus program you use try to have it saved already so it can be installed soon after re-installing Windows. Have the internet connected during the initial install so it is found and set up.

You're very welcome, Urlee. I know the frustration of trying to get a new system to do exactly what you want it to do. The February updates were OK. It was the January updates that wreaked havoc with our systems. But that being said...most of the troublesome updates were either removed by MS or corrected. That still doesn't remove the possibility of problems but at this point...I doubt it. MS did away with Gadgets some time ago. I think over three/four years ago. After offering them...they decided they only gave another point of entry for beasties...so they discontinued them. I'm surprised you found the weather gadget. Is it one that you transferred from you old system? Better you should go into your local TV weather site and download a link to their site for your weather. Or link to the National Weather Service...as I do. They're much better than the gadget ever was as far as predictability and reliability are concerned. Enter you zip code in the appropriate box and you'll find daily/weekly forecasts for your area as well as all other weather info. http://forecast.weather.gov I don't use Win Live at all...for anything. I'm a MS Office "girl" and purchased Office 2010 after 2003 reached the point that it wasn't being supported. I use Outlook for my mail program and recommend it whenever I'm asked. I believe that MS offers a free version of Outlook that you might want to take a look at. I don't know all the particulars about it but I'm sure you can find it if you check the MS download site. Beyond that...I don't think your problems are with Acer. I think they're with MS Win7...and once you get over a few bumps in the road setting up your system just the way you want it...you'll be fine. It's just the initial shock of having to get used to new "things". That's why I always hang onto whatever version of Win I'm working with until the very last breath of air remains in the program. :-) I went kicking and screaming from XP 2 directly to Win 7 a few years ago...hating every minute of the acclimation period. But now I think it's the best program MS has offered since XP 2 and I'll probably put up an equal fuss when I have to go to Win 10. :-) Anne