I would say you may not have enough memory to run Adobe and the Scanner at the same time or you have a conflict and that is harder to find. If the Adobe didn't come with the scanner, it probably is a conflict and I would use the program they sent with it. Save the Pic and reopen it in Adobe. Full blown Photoshop has a lot of settings to contend with and I am not familar with them. P/S lite is a little easier.

As far as a new computer....

I agree with checking PC world, Cnet, Znet and the rest. Dell is by far the least expensive, but their shipping may make up for the money you save. It does tend to run high. Staples has a lot of the same type of machines and thought I like to put my own together, HP or Compaq is very good, with Compaq being the least expensive. Memory is CHEAP!! 128MB of PC100 or 133 ram is running a little under 30 bucks. Fill the slots as much as you can. Get the biggest hard drive you can. But to be honest with you, most of what you need can be had in a sub 1GHZ machine. No need for the powerhouses over that and some of the bigger ones use what they call rambus memory which is expensive and outdated soon anyway. Whatever you buy will drop in price the next week anyway!!