Good idea, however what that will do will "blink" the particle away when they die, insted of gradually fading them out

Bummer, I know...

That is where the Particle Age Mapper comes in to save the day

Simply assign a PPLifespan Dynamic Attribute, and it is created for you automaticly, and you control the fading with a simple greyscale ramp.

Good luck with your machine man, as I JUST got done re-installing W2K a few minutes ago for the umpteenth time on my current machine.

..getting a new one in October when I can afford it, but I'm just limping along untill then....

...so sad