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Mick,

Every few months you post asking for help with your computer which is breaking down, going wrong or gernerally playing up. People offer you advise, including usually say something along the lines of your computer is really old, you are using an out-of-date and notorisouly unreliable operating systemm, you might want to upgrade either your operating system or preferably buy a new PC.

You then complain (I might even say whinge) that it's ridiculous to have to upgrade just becuase of this particualr problem, so you patch it all together and bumble along until the next crisis in two months time at which point you come along looking for help again.

So we have a situation where:

-- You are using outdated equipment that's not really up to the job anymore

-- You are not qualified to maintain it properly without consistent help from others

-- You could replace the thing with a fully up to date, modern PC that would be much better and not require constant attention

-- You could do this for a several hundred pounds. A sum which you frequently keen to remind us you regularly earn in an afternoon working as a consultant costermonger.

I am trying to think of what advice you would offer to someone in this situation. I suspect it would be along the lines "Stop whinging and moaning and pay up the money for the right tools for the job or else shut up and stop wasting our time".

Hope this helps.

Matthew

Matthew

So what model would you suggest ?

Regards

Mick

What do you use it for?

What do you need to use with it - printers/scanners/cameras etc..

What software do you use other than the general Internet Explorer and (I presume) Outlook?

What do you have at the moment, other than it having 128mb and running 98se?

It'd help to be as specific as possible.

Paul

Mick,

You have (I suspect) no complicated requirements like video editing, games, etc. and just want something that will do e-mail, web, and office applications (word processing, spreadsheet, etc). As such almost any modern PC will do the job; essentially they are now commodity items and you get good value and it's difficult to go wrong.

Your other requirement, I suspect, is that you want good quality, reliable service and back-up and don't mind paying a bit extra to get it. Certainly you don't want to be saving £50 at teh sot of lots of extra hassle down the road.

Finally, as a classic general home user you probably don't need a big box with lots of empty space for adding extra bits later. You problably also want something that fits in domestically and doesn't look like it belongs in an office.

All of whcih suggests you want a basic mid-range PC from a well nkown manufacturer. Id' also suggest that teh new breed of mini PCs would be right up your street. Certainly this is the direction I steered my Dad in recently (who is a I suspect in a simiarl situatiuon yo yourself)

So I'd start start by having a look at Shuttle (the most famous of the mini PC people) by going to http://eu.shuttle.com/en/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-2/
You can also browse their model range by usage rather than getting into tedious discussions about the merits of the XT Mark IV Gigazing and the like. See http://de.shuttle.com/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-23/82_read-264/searchcall-12/searchcategory-264/noblendout-1/

Alternatively, I suspect you are not really tied to a windows PC and might well consider an Apple iMac. They are desinged to be turnkey solutions for non-techies and, generally speaking, have far less of teh complications and issues we have some to associate with PCs.

Once you have an idea of roughly what's what, post again and you'll get lots of advice on particular models, what to avoid, etc.

Matthew

Chaps

I am taking a 2 month break starting in 10 days and going through that lot will help keep me occupied.

The main reason for choosing to holding on to my existing PC is that I will have to transfer a fair amount of information.

Regards

Mick

quote:

---

Features I paid top dollar for a few years back seem to be standard now

---

a few years back is ancient history in pc terms.
A few years back I had an Apple IIe with a whopping 64KB of RAM and a floppy drive and it cost more then (in actual $$$ let alone real $$$) than most would think decent to pay for a state of the art pc today.

quote:

---

The main reason for choosing to holding on to my existing PC is that I will have to transfer a fair amount of information.

---

Mick, that won't take you more than a couple of minutes - or you could even pay somone to do it for you.

Mick-
There are several options for transferring your information. The fastest and perhaps simplest would be to purchase the new PC, connect them both to your home network (buy a router box for $15 US if you don't have one -- get one with a hardware firewall and it will help your future spy/popup/etc problems) and select "share" for the hard drive on the old computer. Then go to the new computer and simply copy them down.
You could also burn CDs with the information from the old computer and transfer that way but that can be tedious.
You could also email the files individually to your self but that is also tedious.
If you go to a full service computer store they would most likely do this for you for free or a small fee.
Good Luck,
David

The fastest and most verstaile way to convey your old data to the new box may be to add your old hard disk to your new box, and copy your data across. Then scrub all bar the data from the old disk and you have a built-in back up facility for data.

Fraser

Mick
These are very good. I have had loads of their PC's over the years for office kit.
(Was that you in the Check Inn on Saturday?- Just want to know if my Spyware is working )

I don't see the point these days in spending a fortune on a PC unless you have money to burn, are a real gamer or do video/photo work.

Dell are offering Celeron 2.4ghz PCs with XP Home, 256mb ram, 17" monitor (CRT) and 80gb hard drive and CDrom for £240 all in.

Buy one of those, chuck it after a year I say!

Chaps

It is just past midnight, I have just returned home and have had far too many whiskies to read all your comments.

Many thanks for your advice, I shall read it all tomorrow when I am in a more fit condition.

Regards

Mick

It can be intimidating to deal with this information. I did a quick Google search on cashback.exe - which gives
"What is it?
Top Rebates - cashback.exe
What does it do?
adware plus possible trojan downloader! We highly suggest getting rid of this pest for security and system stability reasons."
It is likely that you have picked up a few spyware infections.
Whatever you end up doing - I would seriously consider investigating barriers and scans. I use ZoneAlarm Pro, AVG anti-virus (freeware) but find an increasing need for both Spybot (scan & barrier) and SpywareBlaster (barrier). There are many free products that do a good job.
At this point - a scan with Spybot or AdAware (make sure both have been allowed to retrieve their latest detections) should begin to identify your problems.
Make a System Restore point before experimenting with deletions/removals.
Just Googled omniscient.exe - another one! As is satmat.exe, and ?? bargains.exe

Just like to second Adam's advice, I would not run anything like HijackThis until SpyBot and Adware had done their thing. There is so much stuff out there that these guys are a must as a filter prior to any real forensics.

I have the dubious responsibility of keeping our sales forces laptops clean and it is not easy given the number of times these idiots seem to 'hand over' control of their PC's to their '8 year old children' who seem to spend all their time surfing hardcore porn sites, judging by the cookies and PopUp's I find on their machines....

We even get PopUps during PowerPoint Presentations on one machine, maybe that will learn em..

As for moving your data Mick get a decent thumb drive and your done.

Regards

Andy

Mike
I have removed your post which gave the scan report. It has been suggested to me that some of the information contained MIGHT make you more vulnerable to hacking.
I made a copy of the page - I imagine you have the data anyway.
This is precautionary.

Thanks Adam

Clearly one brain between us

Blush blush

Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.

Chaps

I received an invitation to update my Spysweeper this morning, and I have just downloaded the newer version and all the pop ups have disappeared.

The system is as fast as the XP system I use in the office.

In the interests of conservation of both the environment and my wallet, I shall retain my existing PC.

Many thanks.

Mick