cloudshipping

Starting this morning, the fan on my HP Pavillion desktop has been speeding up very fast for about two minutes, then it slows down to its normal very quiet speed and runs normal for about five minutes, then repeats the speeding up process.

All of the air intake/outflowing vents are clear of dust and have nothing surrounding them to block airflow. What could the problem be? This computer will be two years old in the fall.

Last summer I switched MacBooks with a relative. She burned my documents with I-DVD (as I now know is the wrong way to burn such files), and now they are not viewable. The files seem to be there individually, as each has a file size different from each other and comparable to what the should be from what I remember them being, but when I go to open them (say with Microsoft word) all that shows are square characters.

Is there a way to recover these documents? The original laptop has since had Leopard installed (had been Tiger), and has actually been sold to another person. I checked out a company named Drive Savers, but I would never have the money they would ask for their services ($800 - $1400!). The information is important to me on a sentimental purpose.

Any help is very greatly appreciated.

I bought a leather halter on ebay. The seller said they would clean and oil it for me, which was fine. When it arrived, it was very sticky to the touch, and along all of the ring and slot connectors there is a very messy gunk jammed all in the leather bits of it all. The halter is just used for decoration, but I'd at least like to be able to touch it. You cannot touch this without getting a greasy residue on your hands.

I did not contact the seller about this, as I actually won it almost a year ago and forgot about it until recently. It was only a ten dollar halter and I figured I would just clean it myself. Any suggestions? Really hot water to degrease? Strong detergent soap?

Thank you all!

I don't have a horse, but I do have a small collection of racing saddle cloths. I really want a saddle, complete with girth and leathers and irons, just for decoration. I don't want an english saddle, but something more authentic to what a racing thoroughbred would be wearing on race day. Does anyone know where I can buy one that won't break the bank? I've looked on eBay, and unfortunately missed out on a few that would've been perfect, but the price (at the time) was too high.

Used or new would be fine. I don't mind if it's already been on a horses back!!

Thanks in advance!