New Laptop!

In September I started noticing some weird stuff going on with my computer.  I bought it back in April 2009 after I got my tax return back.  I've used it every day since I opened the box.  It's gone through a lot.  Trips to Oregon, a trip to Nevada and California, some back and forths from Spokane, Pullman and Yakima, one time I accidently left it at Willmarth's house and had to turn around to get it, lol.  And it's gone through some stuff I was not aware of until I found out someone had borrowed it and dropped it.  The disc drive stopped working one day and the left hand corner had separated and I taped it back together.  I still have no idea who did it because I have never dropped my computer.  I added some of my favorite logos to it.  It donned a Seahawk logo, a Cougar logo and some random geocaching stickers.  It was a bomb computer.  It had endured the weird virus scares a few years back and all the other crazy stuff a computer goes through in its lifetime.  I even had to replace its battery because it stopped charging.  Well, one day I was watching some of my favorite shows and it froze.  I thought okay...maybe it was a fluke.  Too many things going on at once?  Maybe I had too many things on my computer?  It kept doing it more frequently to the point where it did it just about every half hour.  If I was in the middle of something it would freeze without warning.  I borrowed Ben's external hard drive to put some of my bulk pictures and documents on it.  It still froze.  I got onto the internet and browsed what could possibly be wrong with it.  Many things were suggested and I just came to the conclusion that I had better replace it before I couldn't turn it on anymore.  It was old and getting tired.  It was time for an upgrade anyway.

About two months ago, Ben met me at the Best Buy to physically look at computers.  None of them had what I wanted in a computer.  All of them had no disc drive.  Apparently computer consumers liked the idea of computers being so thin and lightweight they had to take that feature out.  Everyone now streams or downloads TV shows, movies and other media through the internet so there really isn't a need for a disc drive.  I want to watch my DVD's and listen to my CD's on my computer.  I didn't care how lightweight or thin my device was as long as my stuff worked on it.

Ben and I looked at some websites and found one that would work with our budget on Newegg.  I found a good deal on a Dell Inspiron 15 5000 series with Windows 10.  My old computer was a Dell Studio, which came with Windows Vista, and I got to pick out a free color.  The only color combination that really stood out to me was the blue scheme. It was the cheapest computer with the knowledge I had about computers back in 2009.  I wanted a webcam, an SD card reader, a disc drive to play my DVD's (even though I only got to use it for maybe a year and a half) and a CD burner.  The only problem I had with it is that no computers after 2002 came with Microsoft office.  You had to buy it separately and that annoyed me.  So I had to pay a guy $40 to install it.  At the time I had no idea how to download Microsoft office software and no one had the time to show me.  I will have to have Ben download it for me at some point.  We ended up getting the Dell Inspiron 15 5000 and it came a few days after my birthday.  So far it's been awesome!

I am just thankful I have a computer I can actually use without it freezing or causing grief while working on projects or watching my shows.  Ben is awesome and I appreciate everything he does for me. 

Next Adventure:  Thanksgiving Weekend