New Computer

My new computer is here! It's a Dell. Yes, I'm taking the plunge again with a Dell. My last Dell purchase, back in 2001 was a disaster. I purchased a brand new Dell with all the bells and whistles. After setting it up, I discovered I couldn't turn it off. Oh I turned it off, but it came back on by itself without any help from me. Yes, it booted itself up. So, knowing that I paid for "premium" service, I call Dell support. Oh, the "premium", it wasn't so much. I still had to wait a long time on the phone and go through all the menu options. The "premium" service was in name only, not reality. When I finally got through to the Dell help line, I get a woman who tells me that I have to reformat my hard drive. Say what? I just got the computer. Reformat the hard drive? I finished that conversation and called again, hoping to get another person with a more reasonable solution. The new person I talked to said that I had too much on my desktop. Well, I guess she should know. It came with a bunch of crapola that Dell installed. She advised me to take off some items. It did. Now I could close the computer, sometimes. Every fourth or fifth time the computer would again boot itself up. To make a long story short, I went through the torture of calling Dell's help line again and again, informing them I had "premium" service which included "at home service." Didn't mean a thing to the folks I was talking to at the Dell help desk. Nada. While I was fighting Dell, trying to get my new computer to work, I brought a small, inexpensive Gateway computer as a temporary replacement. That “temporary replacement” computer is the computer I'm using now. Yes folks, I've been using this Gateway computer since 2001. I eventually gave away my Dell computer to a good friend who did have the hard drive reformatted. Now it works for him. He only had to pay $100 to have it reformatted and but new software. It was a bargain for him. I stayed with my Gateway because it has a small LCD screen instead of that monster cathode ray tube of the Dell. My Gateway is seven years old. I don't want to push my luck so I gave it a lot of thought. Should I get a Mac, like my good friend Lar? I would love to, but I couldn't afford it. So, after a lot of thought and comparing, I decided to go with Dell again. Over the past three days a bunch of boxes were delivered to my front door by UPS. I'm ready for a new computer. I need that 2.0 USB port. I want to copy all my photo negatives to the computer for conversion into digital pictures. Also, I plan to convert my old VHS tapes to DVD's. Most of all, I need a faster computer. My Gateway has been a great workhorse but I'm ready for the new features that my new Dell Inspiron will offer. Only thing I'm not looking forward to is setting it up. I called my good friend Tom, my PC Guy to arrange an appointment for him to set it up for me. This is a win-win situation. I give him the business and avoid getting myself all frustrated. I just hope he doesn't have to call Dell's help desk. The Dell salesman I talked to on the phone when I made the purchase assured me that I would have no problems. He also told me he had a bridge to sell me……………………… cheap.