Repair or Buy New

I paid a computer tech guy to restore files that were lost because my comp (Dell desktop, bought 2004) crashed. Cost included adding additional hard drive. Some files were important and I never done any backup! $450 and 6 mns later, this computer is hardly usable now, very slow and lots of noise (possibly from power supply). I am very reluctant in spending the money to have another tech look at it or even replacing the power supply (if it is the issue). I'm estimating that might set me back at least $200 and no guarantee that the problem won't recur. I need a working desktop for my senior son, who will be taking it with him when he goes off to college next year. Any one out there have any suggestion? Oh, my son had wanted to be a game designer (that desire has not completely vanish out of his head).

I would really appreciate all thoughtful and helpful suggestions! A Million Thnz

 

Welcome to MG, vc_gifts:wave Sounds like you have been thru the mill with your 'puter.... You might want to start with posting some questions in the Malware thread, and go thru the READ AND RUN ME FIRST and see if you have some kind of malware causing your issues... If not, that is a good thing to rule out....

At least here, all you need to spend is time.... We all have plenty of that... The malware people are experts, and you will need plenty of patients there, as they work from the oldest first, kinda like being in line, and NO CUTS ALLOWED! :-D That just means, don't double post, it only puts you back to the end of the line.. You have nothing to lose by giving it a shot, and while you are waiting for a reply from the malware people, you can check out the rest of the forum, see if you can find any answers to any questions you have, like software, hardware, etc... BUT, I would start in malware first..

 

just buy new one

 

I agree with TeeCee one of the primary attributes of a lot of spyware and maleware etc is to impair your system, but generally not to stop it working altogether. They either want you to buy some apparent "silver bullet" to fix the issue they created in the first place or turn your machine into a zombie/bot. Start with CCleaner Slim 2.23.993 which I used once on a friends PC which was "working at a snails pace", we pulled of 5Gb of unnecessary "junk" files and he couldn't believe that he got his "old system" back speed wise after a 2-3min run of this application. Even if you get a new PC you want to look at How to Protect yourself from malware! and make your system "safer" and more robust when online.

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide

"Just buy a new one" isn't very helpful or informative if you are going to potentially end up in a similar situation in 6 months time.