Actually on modern case designs running them with the case open actually makes them run hotter. The fan systems are specifically designed for airflow across components to pull the heat away.

I'm in the market for more RAM for my G5. Dealram pointed me to Omni Technologies as having the current best price for what I want.

So, two questions. First, "2GB (2x1GB)" means 2 sticks of 1GB each, right? Second, does anyone have any experiences with this vendor? Good or bad?

Zenkitty, the other problem you may be having is that your power supply may be bad, or too small to support all the hardware running on your computer. Your problem sounds suspiciously like one I had, and power supply was the answer.

I'd be particularly suspicious if it turned out that the "seemingly at random" turned out to be "every time a CD or hard drive has to spin up." Spinning up a drive is one of the heavier strains on a power supply, and if it's bad, that's a common time for it to fail.

So I probably will get another drive for the Tivo within 4-6 weeks. Should I add another drive, or replace the drive I have?

Go to the Weaknees site; they'll walk you through the decision based on which model you have.

try running it with the cover off, that would keep it cooler.

For some computers this could cause areas of the computer to run hotter, maybe much hotter. A lot of times the fans are set up to pull air out of the case, and if the cover is open the are might not flow over the areas that need cooling.

One thing to check is that there isn't a lot of dust blocking the air intakes. Also, find where the air flows out of the case and feel the temperature with your hand. If it doesn't feel hair-dryer hot, it's probably not a cooling issue.

Well, I haven't opened the case yet anyway, because I'm scared of it. Sean, your power-supply suggestion has merit; today it's run for hours trouble-free, except for shutting down twice while I was installing new printer software. I can't correlate that with other times there were problems, because I can't remember if the disk drive was working extra hard. I don't currently have any other peripherals attached, but it didn't act up like this pre-move when I did have much more hardware. Maybe it's possible the power supply has simply given out. My niece says next time she comes to visit, she'll change the power supply; that was her suggestion also. Maybe that'll fix it. It's good to be related to geeks.

I appreciate all the feedback! Maybe I can finally get this taken care of.

except for shutting down twice while I was installing new printer software.

Yeah, that would be a time when both the CD drive and the hard drive were spinning up at the same time. Make sure any new power supply you put in has as much wattage (marked on the outside of the supply) as the old one, or possibly a little more.

Okay, so while I was away this weekend the version of Firefox on my work computer stopped allowing me to open a new tab by clicking my scrollwheel. Does anyone know where I go to fix that?

I have no idea how this happened, and it's pissing. me. off.

I think that's in Tools->Options->Advanced->Tabbed Browsing.