Computer problems and/or advice 2012

[mark smyth]

Dreaded blue screen ...

My desk top c10 years old keeps crashing. The end in near.

Who should I buy a new desk top from?

[ChrisB]

I'll be watching responses carefully Mark, I'm on the verge of getting one too.  Don't like laptops much.  Did take a look at the all in ones today, but trouble with them is that if the screen goes, your computer has too.... so now I'm looking again.  The marketplace isn't what it was a few years ago either, its Dell, HP or Compaq it seems.  Not a lot of competition out there.

[maggiepie]

Dreaded blue screen ...

My desk top c10 years old keeps crashing. The end in near.

Who should I buy a new desk top from?

Can you get Acer computers there?
They are well priced and usually reliable.
Unless of course you decide to get a Mac.

[Michael J Campbell]

I can vouch for Acer as well, very reliable and readily available here.

[Martin Baxendale]

I got a Dell Vostro all-in-one a couple of years ago and have been happy with it. Bought an all-in-one to save space and the Vostro because it was being sold as a business machine with Windows XP installed and a disc to upgrade to Windows 7 if and when required. I find XP is now a pretty stable OS and I can still use Outlook Express for my emails (Windows 7 doesn't have it).

[Martin Baxendale]

Just had to edit that last post as I kept referring to updating to Vista instead of Windows 7. The memory is going!!

[Palustris]

We had one made to our specifications by a local Computer firm. Cheaper than any advertised makes AND we can take it back in and shout at them! Not that we have had to so far (Bows to Hubris).

[Mike Ireland]

I can also recommend Acer laptops.  Reasonable prices for very good specs.

Mike

[mark smyth]

A concern is Windows 7 doesnt have Outlook on it and cant run it. All my emails are mark@my web sites. I cant change to gmail or whatever now.

What do i do now?

[arisaema]

You can have mark@markswebsite.co.uk and still use Gmail as your inbox, I do that with all my addresses. You can apparently even export emails saved locally on your computer onto Gmail, although I've never tried: http://www.keenerliving.com/importing-outlook-into-gmail

[brianw]

Windows 7 runs Outlook OK. The main problem is it is not in the cheaper forms of MS Office, and costs too much as a stand alone.
Does anyone know if I can mix up different versions of the parts of Office on the same computer, as I have unused copies of older MSOffice versions I could transfer Outlook from, onto my current win 7/ MSOffice computer.
Hope that makes sense.

[ChrisB]

Speaking only of my own computer, I'm no expert.... I have office 2003 plus pieces of my office prof 2000 on mine.

[maggiepie]

I have windows 7  and use Libre Office which is a free office suite.

http://www.libreoffice.org/

I use Sylpheed for my email client which is also free.

http://sylpheed.sraoss.jp/en/

Not quite Outlook Express but it is easy to use and does the job.

[WimB]

I've had an Acer before and I wasn't very satisfied with it. After half a year it started to reboot by itself, often while I was typing something and/or writing an e-mail (which was very annoying  ), got that fixed but it broke down again just after the warranty expired (2 years) when it was the motherboard which was fried, and that was way to expensive to repair. Probably just bought the bad one in the lot, though!
Bought a Dell inspiron two years ago and it works like a charm.

Not interested in a Mac, Mark?

I use Windows live mail (a free program from Microsoft) on Windows 7, which collects my mails from all 5 mail-adresses (Skynet (from my provider), Hotmail (which I almost don't use anymore), Gmail and the 2 mail-adresses of the VRV) I use. It's very similar to the former Outlook Express.

[mark smyth]

Thanks Arisaema. I'll look in to it.

THanks Wim.