I would not go with a celeron processor if you are getting a laptop there are much much better processors available. I prefer AMD processors but Intel also has good options, celeron is just the bottom of the barrel. That 14" acer has a dual core AMD processor that would be a good option for your type of usage. It sounds like a good choice all around and has good reviews. I own 2 Acer's and have had no problems with them. One of them I bought at Best Buy, I do not use their geek squad so would not suggest getting any of their add on protection. You could google that notebook number and may find it at a better price somewhere else however that is a pretty good price.

Here is the listing from whocrashed. I see that it refers to avast antivirus. When I initially tried to install my new IE* I believe that I had disabled Avast for 10 minutes. But I admit that I have forgotten to disingage it in all of my other actions. I will send this and perhaps I will have time to use your routine above to try uninstalling ie8 again with avast disabled and get back again. If I had any sense, I would have tried system restore. I haven't really done that much with this computer and it likely would have done the trick in the first place. System Information (local) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- computer name: I4000 windows version: Windows XP Service Pack 3, 5.1, build: 2600 windows dir: C:\WINDOWS CPU: GenuineIntel Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 2.00GHz Intel586, level: 15 1 logical processors, active mask: 1 RAM: 1073143808 total VM: 2147352576, free: 2027573248 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crash Dump Analysis -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crash dump directory: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump Crash dumps are enabled on your computer. On Wed 8/29/2012 1:32:48 AM GMT your computer crashed crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini082812-05.dmp This was probably caused by the following module: aswsp.sys (aswSP+0x18654) Bugcheck code: 0xC2 (0x40, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFF80000000, 0x0) Error: BAD_POOL_CALLER file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\aswsp.sys product: avast! Antivirus company: AVAST Software description: avast! self protection module Bug check description: This indicates that the current thread is making a bad pool request. This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: aswsp.sys (avast! self protection module, AVAST Software). Google query: aswsp.sys AVAST Software BAD_POOL_CALLER

I didn't have any special problems turning up my Gateway Laptop with W8 a few months back. The biggest problems I had was learning (trial and error) to make one of the W8 tiles a start for Firefox (browser). When this is done the desktop converts to a W7 look. Yea, there's a lto of other "goodies" and I slowly started using them. In spite of the fact that it sometimes facilitates my crashing a dialog via my browser I love the "smart" touch pad. I find it hard using W7 laptop not being able to scroll using two fingers on the touch pad - I guess that's the feature I use the most. The last and only time I was ready to throw out a new notebook, an Acer, was when I couldn't get Vista to set up an network interface (best I can recall, these years later). But as I had purchased it from Walmart I just took it back and said I didn't want it - they refunded my purchase price. I found a demo laptop with XP and purchased it - that was my first Gateway.

I recently bought a new HP Pavillion 500 from Costco....thank goodness they have a 90 day, no questions asked, return policy. It came with Windows 7. I set it up and almost immediately got the blue screen of death. I called HP tech support.....in India. I had a difficult time understanding the woman. I called Costco Concierge service the next morning and things when better. I had to go a complete factory restore. It still didn't work. Finally had to send it to be repaired....Fed Ex brought a shipping box....but someone at HP forgot to include the pre-paid mailing label. It took almost a week to get one, which was delivered by Fed Ex. I got the computer returned and it took about a week and when I set it up again, nothing had changed. Even the screen stating Windows had unexpectedly shut down. A new wireless card had been installed but it seems like no one checked to see if there were any other problems. I called the special tech support number and got someone in Indiana. The guy was excellent....it took about two hours to get things to work. And then the updates wouldn't upload. And then, once again I got the blue screen of death. I took the computer back to Costco Tuesday. Now I will wait to decide what I am going to buy and I will certainly buy it at Costco. I think I will probably go with Windows 8.1. The month I had it was a nightmare except for the tech in Indiana who had the patience of a saint.