Because my old one seems to be dead.

Yes, again, but this time, it seems a bit more permanent.

This time, the method my local computer guy gave me for fixing the NT loader didn't seem to apply to the actual problem - indeed, even with the Windows XP CD in, it simply refused to read the recovery program.

It just constantly keeps restarting and saying it can't start properly, and giving me a choice of starting in either a safe mode, in the last known working mode, or starting normally, and no matter which option I choose, it restarts all over again and gives me the exact same options.

So, you know what? Fuck it. I'm not spending hundreds more dollars on a nearly four-year-old laptop, when I can get a brand-new one, with loads more hard drive space and memory, for as much as a hundred bucks less than what my dad paid to buy me this one.

And with installment payments, I don't even need to come up with it all in one lump sum, but that being said, I want to make sure my new machine will be worth the money, so I ask you, Internet Friends - what make and model of laptop should I buy?

Here's my preferences:

I'm disinclined to buy a Dell, because that's what my current one is, and both it and my dad's Dell desktop started fucking up at only the two-year mark, to degrees that were never able to be fully repaired.

No fucking Macs, thank you. I'm not interested in embracing "the Mac lifestyle," or whatever the fuck you Mac users call the Scientology Kool-Aid that you drink that gives you Mac User Autism (I mean, no offense, but you people are even worse about that shit than advocates of the Metric system), and more importantly, I'm very accustomed to PC.

Ideally, I'm looking for something in the $500 range, but I'm flexible, because I also want something that can save, load, display and play ... um, picture files and audiovisual recordings (I trust I don't need to elaborate on this one).

I'm thinking my existing files on the old laptop should be fine (they were before, during the last time it started fucking up), so at this point, as long as I can transfer those onto a nice new vehicle for writing, surfing the Web and playing downloads, I'm good.

On Friday, I go to see my uncle and cousin in Oakland, just outside of San Francisco, so this crash actually times out well, but it makes me anxious, as always, not to have my own ... art commissions, available in digital form at the click of a mouse-button.

As it is, I'll be cleaning the cookies on my parents' desktop as soon as I finish using it.

So ... any advice? Any at all?