Yeah I feel you about the weather... its gonna be freaking cold tonight! Im in Colorado Springs right against the mountains so we have a -19 wind chill right now :/...
If you have a friend that has either xp or windows 7 they seem to work better than vista, so if you can borrow one of those and try it out it should work better.
XP is more recommended from what I have heard and tried.
And with the FICM I dont know anything about it so I cant help with that... :/