Some people might say that one computer isn't enough anymore. Then you could have a desk covered in computers and one in the wardrobe. Your bedroom floor might be criss-crossed with more cables than the Somme. And would those same people still say you needed more than one computer. Probably. They always will.

Well, help is at hand for those kind of people. Ask around and you can get no longer used but by no means old computers absolutely free. Forget ebay. They might need a bit of tinkering. Perhaps a new hard drive. Chances are you'll already have 5 lying in a drawer somewhere. Anyway. I got one the other day and God was it rubbish. Not in terms of hardware or even age. The only cosmetic defect is a sticker slighty raised in a corner. In other words - perfect.

Until I turned it on. For the next two days I'd have been happier if I'd been given polonium-210 instead. Two days of fiddling about changing hard drives stuck in the most inaccessible places. A good tip if you open up your computer a lot to make it much better than the manufacturer ever could. If it takes more than 3 minutes to change a hard drive leave it alone. If it takes 10, do us all a favour and smash it with a hammer. Surgeons don't have to remove all our organs just to change one. We shouldn't have to either.

Anyway the main problem wasn't the hard drive. It was the drivers. I won't name the manufacture of this particular computer but will warn everyone it sounds half Japanese half German. Anyone remember what happened last time these two nations teamed up together? Two countries with a reputation for engineering excellence. I'd expect different if it was half Indian half Greek.

Trying to find the drivers was like trying to find the Loch Ness monster. Some people says its there. Some people say they've seen it. But the harder you look the harder it is to find. Normally if you are looking for a driver, you use Google. A few minutes later your done and can go home. No even Google couldn't find them. Even the manufacturers website just gave a long, long list of possible drivers that I might or might not need. Not which ones I have already got and which ones I needed. I still haven't found them. I doubt I ever will. They will probably turn up with Bin Laden somewhere no-one expected.

Sometimes rubbish computers are just that. Rubbish