Hi! Jean,

In a message to Tom Walker you wrote:

 JP> 	I just turned on my U'u machine and was offered an update to a LTS
 JP> version. I will install it and hope that it has the proper addin.
 JP> Keeping my fingers crossed.

Do that after making a backup, particularly of your 'home' directory. 
(That will have your personal settings for both TB & FF.)  Even with a
new working upgrade, the directory for TB will still be handy, as, after a
new TB has run at least once, the contents of the old
~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default/* can be copied into the new one.  You
could do the same for ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/* but you might
miss out on any add-on that you're wanting.

I have tried version upgrades in the past on my little Dell netbook but the
they (plural) failed.

 JP> 	I might look into installing a new audio card in this old P4, as it
 JP> is, it runs all from the back of the MoBo. I have not studied how
 JP> these computors treat the two channels, audio/video.

Look to its BIOS.  There might be settings there to switch-off the MoBo
hardware.  Sorry if I'm preaching to the converted.  :)

Cheers,
Paul.

... Thesaurus: ancient reptile with an excellent vocabulary.
--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox