Just a follow-up to my original posts. I called the Deere dealer after not hearing from him for a week. He still doesn't know how much it will cost to fix and whether he can do it. He says the water pump and cam are shot which is not surprising at 1400 hours (especially with plastic cam parts) but he also says the crank shaft is shot which sound dubious. He said he would call me back when he knew, but when I called him back to ask how much a new tractor was, his voice brightened considerably and he had the sales rep on the phone with me in 2 minutes. Given the chimera that will result from cobbled parts, we'll probably purchase a new x720. Thanks mownie 7, I believe you had it right in that the water pump was worn and potentially leaking into the engine (I did need to top off the coolant from time to time). Who would suspect that a water pump could cause the entire engine to go (if the dealer is telling the truth). Also, a water pump failure would cause the temp gauge to rise while the engine continued to run. I still think crank shaft replacement is dubious, but he has me over a barrel and clearly wants to sell a new machine. Ultimately, I had 11 exceptional years of service from this machine. I worked it hard and it never complained. I'm still a Deere fan in spite of NYC service deficiencies.

Your case probably will not take a new motherboard configuration, not because of mounting holes for the board but because of the back layout of your current case. Today's motherboards mostly if not all come with a small rectangular back panel with the holes stamped out to exactly accept the motherboard Your old case probably does not offer the possibility of removing such a panel as it is may have a solid back. Look at this case and click on the first small image underneath, there you can see the mouse, keyboard, USB and various other holes. That little section can be snapped out so the piece you buy with a new board can be snapped in. Next the power supply will be too small, today even a 350 watt ps is considered minimal and I expect you have a 230 watt. The RAM will not fit. Your video card might only be AGP 2 and the wrong voltage for today's mobos. Basically your new CD-RW might be worth saving and of course the hard drive. You may well have paid almost as much for your CD player as you will today for a name brand DVD player recorder that does CDs and DVDs. So having unintentionally upset your plans why not set about building a whole new box? Decide how much money you can spare. Decide what you want in the new computer and set about reading up and/or asking questions to ensure all components are compatible with each other. Or have Dell build a tower with your requirements built in. Whaddyathink?

Thank you for responding. Power supply make: Dell (celetronix?) model: cx305n-00 USB plug-ins w/o own electric - keyboard, mouse, occasional camera and ipod USB plug-ins w/ an electric plug: printer, external hard drive, speakers. Monitor has own power obviously. Other stuff w/o own power- 1 card reader, 2 dvd drives, video card, 2 memory cards, fan, sound card, 2 hard drives. The error message regarding the power supply only appeared 2 times about a week apart before this all happened. If I do a restart, there is no error message any more. I did not reformat! At one point, I was not able to start windows and they wanted me to reformat. But really, the memory card just wasn't in right from all my unplugging and replugging. Fortunately, I always hang up when they want to reformat! Lol! In the meantime, I had them help me disable the RAID to save things that weren't backed up. I have since backed up. Phew! Also whether this is of note or not, the two USB plugs in front of the computer are unusable as both stripped the USB cables of their pins. They are stuck in there and I can't use them. If I try, the system could reboot but mostly just doesn't see what I plugged in. I told Dell of this and they said that they are attached to the motherboard and that to replace them, I would have to replace the motherboard so I left it. It has been that way about a year. Next time it goes down, I might try to remove them with some needle nose pliers. I have tried two different brands of batteries with the same result. I have tried to reuse the batteries and they do seem to be drained. This has to take place while the computer is off for a period of time. I can do a restart once the computer is on. Batteries were in single or double packs. I didn't notice any corrosion. Everything is shiny. But really, I might need to get glasses or a magnifying glass to see something like that. The battery is CR2032 - 3 volts. I have been reinstalling the battery immediately as I read somewhere that there could be a memory problem with the bios if I left it out for a period of time so I never tried 30 minutes. That I would only do with Dell on the phone because of my warranty. Maybe they will try that next? All components, including the raid system, came with the computer. It is still under warranty for a couple more years. Dell had me take off one item at a time and restart with each item unplugged. They also had me plug into the wall which makes it sometimes work when other things fail. I have replaced the surge protector but I still have to plug the CPU into the wall, at least when it first jump starts. It has been getting progressively worse as far as how many items need to be unplugged before it comes back. Replacing the battery was my idea and it works. I have been leaving the computer on all the time and want to finish some year end bookkeeping stuff before I risk turning off again. But soon I will have to call Dell back and I don't want to go through the dance again, only to be down again and maybe next time not be able to get back up at all. Nor do I feel 100% comfortable playing with all the wires while the computer is plugged in. Though I'm careful, I've seen a couple of sparks already and some plug-ins are cramped. But after that long winded post, what would cause the cmos battery to lose power while the computer is off, if that is what is happening? It has to be some kind of power leak?

Zep516, Thanks for all your help. I've tried to follow all your instructions. I downloaded the file from the link you provided, unzipped it, and re-booted the computer. Then did the uninstall of the realtek audio driver from the device manager, and again re-booted - and it gave me a 'fouund new hardware' message. Plus I then went back to the device manager and the driver was listed, but still no sound. I think I'm about ready to give up trying. Might try getting a sound card - or may just take this thing to a local computer shop that does free diagnostic with a quote on repair cost. They seem nice. My stepdaughter bought a lenovo laptop from them about a year and half ago. I considered doing that but instead thought I'd just give her some money for her old computer (this one)as it had the power supply, and mother board replaced under warranty. Thought I'd be saving some $$. WRONG! This was of course before I knew about the sound prob. My husband then surprised me with a nice new monitor. Very sweet of him, but now I'm wishing that I had just let him put that money towards a new laptop instead of a monitor. If you were not able to do a lot yourself to computers, would you invest anymore in this one (it seems fine except the sound) or just bite the bullet and get a new one? Tough question I know, but just curious your opinion and not really asking you to make the decision for me. Whatever I do, it won't be anytime soon - a little short on $$ right now. What brand of computer (lower end $$) do you think is most dependable? I've been told Toshiba is o.k., but to stay away from Compaq and HP. What do you think, or do you care to say? Thanks, Frances