Corinne wrote:
Please don't blast me for asking this question here. I have posted here
before and received excellent advice, so I am back.

I am in the market for a new computer. I am interested in Dell. When
searching the Dell sites, I see lots of complaints about service, etc.

Do any of you use a Dell computer, and can anyone recommend a model
for someone who uses the computer basically for email, newsgroups,
searching the web, playing solitaire, and making greeting cards?

I am totally lost, and as you can see, I am not too computer savvy.
I just know the basics, and my computer man, in this small town,
just retired due to ill health.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Corinne

Dell is kind of the Chevrolet of computers. I know people who just go
through them every few years. The idea is that they'd have to upgrade
anyway, so why pay more for superior in the meantime, when what they
get is adequate. Of course, i inherit the old ones. The last one, the
reason it died was obvious when I opened it up, the CPU fan had seized.
$10 at radio shack and we were back in operation, and that included a
heat sink i didn't need. But of course, now i've got a 5 year old
computer with usb 1 and slower networking than whatever the latest is.

the other thing about cheap dells is that they are deliberately limited
in how much memory you can upgrade, for some reason to do with cheap
licensing. don't ask me why. but the same model of the one I've got
here, which tops out at 512 meg, in Canada can run with 640 meg.
apparently, keeping the memory down cheapens some sort of license,
which keeps the whole price down.

but i do like the dell cases, though. the one i've got comes apart with
no tools.