I need a new computer or two. My small lap top which I mentioned here developed some bad keys. 4,5 and - no longer work. There is an on screen keyboard which can be activated to handle those characters, but it is a pain in the wazoo to use it. I got the computer in April of 2010. It has worked most of the time, but old age seems to be catching up. My other computer is a 17 inch HP Envy laptop. I like it a lot. I have had it since May 2011. It works just fine most of the time. The only bugger is that the USB 3.0 port is flaky on occasion. When it flakes out and disconnects the external drives, Lightroom has a heart attack. It takes quite a while to get everything restarted. This is the computer I take on all our driving trips.

In the great scheme of things, it would be nice to replace both computers. It would make sense to do them one at a time. No reason for major upheaval. The Envy is the last I would replace because it is all color calibrated and I get good results with printing. Sure don't want to screw that up. So my going in position is to replace the small one first. Now, what am I going to look for as far as options are concerned? Lotsa RAM (16 G) and a solid state drive. That seems to be where I am starting. Maybe tomorrow I can go to Frys or Best Buy ans have a look. My suspicion is that I am going to order it direct from HP.

I was remembering back to late 1981 or early 1982 when I got my first computer. It was the original IBM PC. I had great fun with that thing. I forgot how much it cost, but it was a lot of money. Well worth it.