Quote Originally Posted by bikerz View Post
Regina, I presume you run virus scans and spyware software? Those little nasties can cause a PC to slow down quite a bit.

Also, if you have moved important files off to an external drive, be sure to back them up onto CD, DVD or a second external drive - all drives can fail, and extra disks with tons of storage are very cheap these days.

I've spent way too much time trying to keep elderly PCs running over the years, and have finally realized it's a case of severe diminishing returns! These days, when you can buy a brand new PC box for well under $500 (I bought one a few months ago for $187!) your time is worth more.

My one caution - if you get a PC, DON'T GET VISTA! In my opinion, it is not ready for prime time yet!
I run Norton antivirus, which updates and scans regularly and which I've been told is a pig of a program and may also be the cause of some slow performance. AOL gives us spyware checks, but I wonder about that. DH had his computer guy check our p.c. out recently, and he said it looked fine in the virus/spyware department. Files have been moved to a second internal hard drive, and yeah..I'm overdue for a backup.

Can you even get a new p.c. these days that *doesn't* have Vista??