If I were in the market for a new desktop, which I'm not, I would take quick look at the new HP Touch Smart. It comes with a 19" wide screen touchscrren monitor, and is just very, very slick looking. I ran into it at Best Buy earlier tonight and my mouth about dropped open. Also, it's stacked with some hot stuff inside. Take a look at the specs: Processor AMD Turion 64 X 2 Dual Core RL52 with AMD PowerNow and AMD LIVE! Technology Operating system Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Memory 2048MB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM memory (expandable to 4GB) Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 graphics with 256MB video memory Hard drive 320GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive Primary CD/DVD drive Slot-loaded SuperMulti Drive DVD burner with LightScribe Technology Secondary CD/DVD drive N/A Memory slots 2 SoDIMM (both occupied), HP Pocket Media drive bay (available) Front-access ports 8-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB , 1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port, headphones, S-video, audio (L/R), composite input (analog video/audio) Communications Wireless LAN(802.11a/b/g) with built in WLAN antenna, Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet network interface, Sound Integrated audio, 6 speaker configurable and Built in 12W 2.0 speakers Monitor Touch Enabled 19" diagonal BightView LCD with height and tilt adjustment, Aspect Ratio 16.10 Dimensions 18.88(l) x 21.77" (w) x 11.37 (d/h) Web Camera Integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam with built in array microphone Personal Video Recorder NTSC TV Tuner and over the air ATSC high definition television tuner The price is $1799 Here is a link that might be useful: HP Touch Smart

If the battery is dead as Mikie suggests they can be had for about $3. It is about the size of a quarter and easy to change. Be sure to remove the power cable and rest your bare arm on the metal frame while working inside the case, a tiny clip on one side holds the battery in place. You need to verify how many BIOS beeps you have then compare to the Dell chart here. Knowing that will be very helpful.

Yes, letting it sit over nite really does not matter, they heat up instantly, Does it feel hot? The other possibility is it is a (BSOD) Do you see a blue screen right before it shuts down? They can occur very quickly & you may miss it. it is a blue screen with an error on it, If that is the case try this setting after you do you will now be able to see blue screen error, we would need this error to help you, here are the steps 1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. Click the Advanced tab. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect. Now when you go to shut down and a fatal error occurs, you'll at least see it and it won't cause an automatic reboot. You still have to sort out what's causing the problem.

A $1,000 will buy a pretty nice Windows laptop but certainly you can spend more (or less). At that point you can kind of go in two directions, the ultra portable machines or a less portable "workstation" with plenty of power. Both directions can add considerably to the price. I've used a Mac and never had a problem browsing the web or having a site take my money. I'm wondering if you're problems aren't related to Safari, which isn't the greatest browser. Fortunately Chrome and Firefox are both available for a O/S X. I don't collaborate with enough people to have had problems with compatibility between versions of Microsoft Office. Some years back I did work with a colleague on a Power Point presentation. He had a Mac and I was using Windows. There was an effect, maybe slide transition, that was natively available on the Mac but not in Windows. What was interesting is that once he had added it, I could then edit it, say for speed, in Windows. Given your budget: Intel Core i7 8 gigabytes of RAM, with 12 or 16 being better Full HD screen 256 gigabyte PCIe solid state drive. If you really need the storage space bigger solid state drives are available as are traditional hard drives but you'll take a hit with performance with a traditional drive Discrete video card, doesn't need to be a "gaming" machine but a discrete card takes some of the load off the processor and has it's own memory which boosts performance Enough ports for your current peripherals.