What I would try in regards to the Armory issue is export your wallet and get rid of everything that is installed with Armory when you are building it.  Then go and build the version that your error was referring to and import your backed up wallet.  Try it out for a bit and see if you are having the same issues or not.  I am guessing you have something wrong with one of the dependencies for the newer version so then when you go to upgrade to the newest version again make sure you don't get any errors or dependencies that are clashing with each other.  I think with a fresh start you should be just fine.

I've found Coinbase to be the quickest online wallet to get started with and you don't need to worry about the ol' database crashing on you before getting everything back up.  You can use it as a repository for your bitcoins until you get Armory working and then transfer your wallet into the program straight away.