Computer Woes

I hate computers.

Actually, I love computers but hate it when they don’t work.

We have 2 laptops: a Compaq and a Toshiba. When my MIL got a new computer, we got her Compaq. The DVD/CDROM never worked, so I couldn’t load up my web design software, but it still connected to the internet and we could do other things and we had at the time, our dinosaur of a desktop computer. But it has been dead-in-the-water for the last 6 months. Won’t even boot.

Wasn’t a big deal because we still had the Toshiba that we got from my dad when he upgraded. But it hasn’t ever really worked right either. It will crash unexpectedly. You’ll be working on it and bam! Dead! We took it in a year ago to Best Buy (when I was right in the middle of a big web design project). They said it was the heat sensor and replaced it. Within 4 months, it started crashing again. Because the warranty expired, we took it to a knowledgable friend. He couldn’t find anything wrong. He cleaned it out really good and returned it to us. Within 2 months, the laptop started crashing again. Now it crashes at 5+ times a day. Not only that but the laptop won’t recognize that it is plugged in. It won’t charge. If you fiddle enough with the connector, you can get it to charge but what a pain!

So here I am with major computer woes. Not getting the hours into my part-time job, needing to complete a couple of web design projects, and wanting to smash all of these laptops to pieces with a sledgehammer.

Hubby and I discussed that we may just buy a new computer instead of spending more money trying to fix these laptops.  Now we’re trying to decide which one. So many to choose! (It has been 5 years since I’ve looked at computers.)

I need to put my web design software on it. And of course, GIMP for photo editing. I want to stay away from Windows Vista because of issues of Palm desktop connecting to Vista.

What do you have and are you happy with it? Any pro’s and con’s to your brand/model?