[Ti] New subscriber with some questions

[Carole Franklin]

Hi Everyone:

I am a new subscriber to this group. I have a 867 MHz Titanium Powerbook
that I bought just when the new aluminum ones came out. I love it. It's the
best Mac I have had. I bought one of the first Macs, the 128K RAM one, in
1984 when I was in college and have had Macs ever since.  I have a couple of
questions for you.

I was out of town for quite some time over Christmas. When I got home and
tried to open my Entourage email, I found that all my messages and mailboxes
had disappeared. No one used my computer when I was gone. I discovered that
my Main Identity had been erased. I had a back up fortunately and replaced
it. 

I found a copy of Microsoft Office in my trash. Do you have any idea about
what could have happened? When I asked an Apple tech at the "Genius Bar" in
Houston (where I live), he had no suggestions. He said he had never heard of
such a thing.

Also I have just had a 256 Ram chip go bad--second party. I had it installed
by PowerMax form whom I bought the computer. The same genius told me that
they couldn't replace it with Apple chips because they aren't available for
this computer any more. So what would you guys suggest I get instead, and
form whom?

I am experiencing very slow loading of programs and restarting when I open
the lid after the machine has been idle for bit. I am also having to force
quit programs a lot and recently when I restart, I get a message that
programs that I am trying to quit have unexpectedly quit. Would these things
be because of lack of memory?

Please answer reasonably simply. I don't understand the technical stuff you
guys have been arguing over in the last few digests (-: I mean what is
firmware for goodness sakes?!

Thanks,

Carole