1. When you upgraded to FF 1.5, did you do a fresh install or did you upgrade over a previous version? I find that this is a frequent cause of ongoing FF and Thunderbird problems -- always uninstall and fresh install.
2. A terrific open-source program is Mozilla Backup, which works great with Mozilla, FF, and TB. I use it daily to archive our Office emails. It makes the bother of uninstalling old/fresh-installing new versions a breeze. [
]http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/]
3. I find that many long-term Windows users don't devote any time to system maintenance. That surprises me, inasmuch as Windows is a goodish old OS as long as it's working correctly, but it's a hellish irritant when it's not. I've encountered people who will put up with ongoing screw-ups for months at a time but who never learn even basic repair procedures (I'm not saying that's any of you guys). I just reinstalled my landlord's Toshiba laptop the other day, because he'd picked up some sort of virus or trojan. He'd never done any sort of maintenance to his system, and he wasn't even sure whether his antivirus has a working subscription.
When things are going wrong:
A. run Scandisk
B. clean your system - Clearprog is free (
http://www.clearprog.de/index.php?lang=en)
C. Run a registry fixer/cleaner program like Registry First Aid, RegHealer, Norton WinDoctor or RegSupreme
D. Defrag your main partition
[[Again, I'm sure all of you are well past this but:
E. Consider using another antivirus
F. Install a software firewall program if you haven't]]
I know, this is all so absurdly basic, but I'll warrant that somebody out there has never tried these things.