I have charter high speed internet. I installed their security suite a couple of weeks ago. My norton anitvirus was expired and I didn't want to pay again, since this service comes with my internet access. I also recently upgraded my Kodak Easyshare program to 7.1. My questions are this:

When I start up my computer, it takes forever for it to get up and going so I can actually do something on it. At first, I think it was because Kodak was starting right away. I deleted it from my start menu, so it doesn't try to start when I turn the computer on. That did make a difference. I think the security suite from charter is taking a long time to do it's thing too. Is there any way to get the charter security suite to go through its business faster, so I can get on with what I want to do?

Then, I noticed that my think light runs and runs and runs, I also think this if from charter ss. When I look at the task manager to see how much "percentage" is in use, it is almost 100% whenever I open something, whether it be email, a webpage, anything. This has only started happening since the upgrade of Kodak, and the installation of charter security suite. When my daughter tries to do her thing with the iPod application, it says memory is low.

I would like some input on external, add on hard drives. I know I need to get some pictures and songs (daughters iPod stuff) off my internal to create more space to run programs. I would like an easy, USB plug in one that I could transfer files to, and leave in the drawer when I don't want those files. I also thought maybe a flash drive would be better for this, but how big do they go? Would getting some of this stuff off my hard drive solve all my problems? Any input would be great. Thanks

First, what you are calling the "think light" is probably the hard drive activity light. It just indicates that the hard drive is being accessed. With most machines this light should flash almost constantly.

The CPU activity indicates something is constantly processing. The Task manager Processes tab will tell you what is grabbing memory and CPU cycles.

Flash drives currently go to about 16G. But I would be more inclined to use an external USB drive for thsat type of storage. Or just burn to DVD/CD.