Um. Help please?

[severina2001]

So the computer died again this morning. I manage to breathe life back into it, but da-yum. I can feel the grey hairs sprouting.

I did a quick look online to try to get some idea of prices and such, and I'm so hopelessly lost. Can any computer savvy people on my flist help me out

Comments

[court1429]

How do I find how much RAM I have? I know I've seen somewhere how much free space I have but I can't find it again; I just happened on it by accident the first time.

[court1429]

programs, accessories, system tools

Thanks! It's not what I found the first time. That was a big colorful pie chart, but this had the info. Not sure I understand it, though. 512MB total physical memory, 2G total virtual memory? argh... :)

[anonymous]

programs, accessories, system tools

Thanks! It's not what I found the first time. That was a big colorful pie chart, but this had the info. Not sure I understand it, though. 512MB total physical memory, 2G total virtual memory? argh... :)

[larissa_j]

Right click on my computer. On the tab with the OS information and GUID for system it should should your processor speed/make and RAM.

If this fails, your system will also show the amount of RAM on post. Or you can get it in the BIOS.

[court1429]

Thanks! I found the pie chart I'd happened on previously. It was only referring to my C drive, though. Says I have 50 GB available and have used 20GB. I figure that's plenty of room for downloaded porn! :)

I am going to buy one of those "...for Dummies" books and see if I can't learn a few things.

[severina2001]

OMG that's what I should do. We can both buy one and try to figure it out together.

[court1429]

We so should! The thing that makes me feel really stupid is when you go to the Help function and you realize you don't have enough baseline knowledge to even understand the instructions. Frankly, I'm not sure the "for Dummies" book will be easy enough for me! lol

[severina2001]

Seriously. I feel like a bloomin' idiot asking these VERY simple questions (and omg, you should see the ones I'm asking tamalinn over IM that are so dumb they're not fit for posting.) But hey, gotta ask so I at least know what to ask for when I go to the shop!

I'll see if those Dummies books are there, too! :D

[severina2001]

For word processing you can use Open Office which is free (open source) and in my experience fully compatible with Microsoft Office.

Thank you for the link! I was going to ask if there was some free online word processing option. I'm a bit confused -- a bit, hahahaha! -- though. You say it's fully compatible with MS Office... what if you don't *have* MS Office. All of these don't come with it (but the Compaq comes with MS Works... which I believe contains a word processor...)

I prefer two CD/DVD drives because it makes it easier to copy a CD

Is that because you can put the CD you are copying in one drive and the one you are burning in the other, and skip the step of loading the disk onto your hard drive? (If I am right -- woooo!)

I'm hoping not to go over $1000 including taxes and extended warranty. I'm probably dreaming.

Thanks so much for responding!

[meimur]

I used to have MS Works on my last computer. It is a word processing system that is almost exactly like Word. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Works might have been the predecessor to Word. I wrote all my college papers in Works, so you can definitely used it for all your writing needs!

[tamalinn]

it saves in a different format, but if you're not sharing files with people, it works just fine as a basic word processing program. and if that's all you're using it for, there's no need to shell out $1000. i used works in high school and college for all my papers, and i use word now, and for what i need it to do, which is pretty much just make words appear on the screen, i see no difference whatsoever.

[severina2001]

$1000 was for the whole shebang. I priced MS Office incl. Word at $179, and Works is only $69. There's also the downloadable word processing program that rebeccama mentioned. I'm sure I'll come up with something that I like!

[angstie]

Hi,
Can't comment on the hardware as I'm a Mac user, but re Office - the academic/student prices are WAY cheaper than the regular price - do you know of anyone who is a full-time student (or has a student ID card) that can get it for you? Any end of academic year clear-out specials?

Another extreme alternative re Office is: do you know anyone who works for a large company/corporation? If so, do they have a Home Use deal with Microsoft? If so, you can get Office for about $30....(legit copy)

Good luck with the new computer
Ang