I'm having PC issues and am probably going to buy a new PC in a day or two. Then it will probably take a few more days to get the new PC loaded with the stuff I need...Then a few days to catch up.

Right now, I can't do much without getting the Blue Screen of Death so I can't really work on any projects or check out new programs for a while.

I just want you to know I'm "here", but my PC may explode and if you don't hear from me for a few days, I'll be back online ASAP. I live in the Moutains in Colorado and it takes me over an hour to get to town and I want to wait until Monday when the new store sales begin.

(I'm getting really frustrated with computers...Anyone need a cab driver?)

Sorry about this and thanks...

Don't bother with the BIG BOX stores - Fry's Electronics might be an exception if you have one near you. Other than that, order a DELL!!!

I have owned just about every mfr out there and DELL's are FAR and AWAY the BEST product made today. Don't buy a cheapy promo line, get one of their better lines and you will be far happier than with anything else on the market.

They will ship it right to your door. Yes, there might be issues every now and then, but they will also stand behind their product.

I hope this helps
Phil G

I'm actually looking at a Toshiba at Office Depot...I can't make up my mind whether to get:

2 laptops with 15 inch monitors and 2 gigs of ram at $329 each

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/543417/Toshiba-Satellite-C655D-S5041-156-Widescreen/

or

1 laptop with 17 inch monitor and 4 gigs of ram.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/490146/Toshiba-Satellite-L675D-S7016-173-Widescreen/

I'm learning towards the one, but can see some serious advantages to having two identiacal laptops, as well.

Better go before this computer "breaks" again...

Again, if you don't hear from me for a day or two, don't worry, but I don't think I'll need to be out of touch for any length of time...

So I figured I had nothing to lose and opened the box up and took out a stick of ram. It was a 50/50 shot, but one stick looked "weathered" and just didn't look right, so I yanked that one.

My PC started right up and I haven't had any errors or BSOD for 24 hours. The longest it lasted before was about 3 hours, but also had lots of other problems like IE shutting down, etc.

BTW, despite my literature saying I have 4 memory slots, I only have two. But, I did find a place on the mother board to solder two more slots.

The moral of the story: It's easier to open the box and physically check/remove/replace ram than do all the other stuff I tried for about a week, including software tests of the ram. For the testing, I used both Windows ram test and an 3rd part tester.