I glad you're happy with it, though.
I saw your reply to me and got to wondering if you purchased a new PC with Win 8 or decided to install Win 8 on an existing PC. The latter can be a receipe for disaster. Before I retired and MIS departments were under my supervision, we never would upgrade the operating system on existing PCs.
If you use Microsoft Outlook to send and receive emails, your problem likely is with the POP and SMTP settings, as well as maybe another setting in the email setup. In such cases, your Outlook cannot direct itself properly. If you are using web based email such as gmail or hot mail, then that simply is a matter of going to their website and signing on to view your emails.
We just converted our internet vendor from Verizon to Time Warner. I had to reset Outlook Email on our two desktops. We have Outlook 2010. Once I got to the setup page and inserted my new email address and password, it completed the process automatically. With my netbook that runs on Win XP, and has Outlook 2003, I had to manually input each of the settings. Then you can run a test email to see if it goes out and then gets delivered to your in box.
As to the screen going dark, it sounds like you need to go into the Energy Savings settings and either change them to allow more time or turn them off entirely in which case your screen would never turn off.
I would suggest you look for a PC guru with experience in Win 8. Also, there is a book available on amazon.com titled Windows 8, Inside Out, a Microsoft publication by Tony Northrup. It is very comprehensive. You might also try checking out the Microsoft Windows 8 Help site and bulletin board.