Stand-By "revereses time"/screws everything up - HELP! (vostro)

My machine: Dell Vostro 1400, T7250 C2D, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 128MB 8400, 120GBHD, Vista Home Premium.

I just got my replacement Dell Vostro 1400. I exchanged the previous one because: 1. After 5 days it blue-screened. 2. It once made a whining noise for 5 secs that sounded like it was going to blow up. 3. Would sometimes freeze when putting into hibernate. 4. When it resumed from stand-by, it would undo things I'd previously done, such as movement and deletion of shortcuts, functionality of shortcuts, programs I'd installed would give me an error message when I'd try to run them (a poker program), and the brightness control once didn't work.


My problem now: While the new Vostro isn't blue-screening or making noises (yet), the stand-by problem is twice is bad.

To elaborate..

Before I'd even installed ANY programs, it would replace shortcuts in the start bar and on the desktop that I'd removed twenty times before, as if it really, really doesn't want me deleting the stupid "backup and restore center" shortcut, or moving the Recycle Bin to the bottom left corner.
After I'd installed Windows Live Messenger and Firefox, after resuming from stand-by, it would replace the install downloads to the desktop, after I'd already deleted them, delete shortcuts I'd created in the taskbar.

Finally, last night I installed a poker program, used it, and put it in stand-by for a few hours to sleep. This morning, Voila! Windows Live Messenger? Completely GONE as if it were never installed. Windows Gadget Sidebar? NOT THERE. Poker Program? ERROR MESSAGE - cannot locate. Taskbar is unlocked and shortcuts are rearranged all over the place. Various crap I'd EMPTIED from the Recycle Bin? BACK in as if I'd never deleted them! And adjusting brightness? DOESN'T EVEN WORK! What the hell is going on?!?

This is infuriating. It's as if putting in stand-by gives the computer a chance to have a mind of its own and f@@k things up. This is a BRAND NEW machine and I've only installed 3 programs (it was doing this before I'd installed anything). I don't believe it does this when I resume from hibernation.
Is this something that is common to Vostros or a Vista/Stand-By issue? Should I exchange this once AGAIN? Two machines in a row with same problem - Must be fixable - and I'm clearly not doing anything that would cause this. Can anyone help me??

Thanks,
Derek

 

It sounds like this is a Vista issue more than anything. You might want to consider demanding a license for XP.

 

Demanding a license? As in, exchanging it with XP installed? or?

Other than this problem, I really like the eye candy and other guilty pleasures of Vista.

Doesn't seem like the only way to avoid this ridiculous problem is to not use the OS, there must be a solution? It's not like I'm using cutting-edge, unstable software here.

 

Considering that Vostros are available with XP, politely suggest that the older OS may work better for you instead of exchanging an entire laptop. I've heard at least one time in which that worked.

 

maybe its a vostro thing? have you tried updating windows before anything?