hi does anybody have an idea how much it would cost for a PC to have a complete overhaul. It was my dads and he has since passed away and there are certain things I would need to backup as in photographs and suchlike. It has a vista program and runs so slow even tho I am supposed to be on the faster broadband speed - and pop ups are a complete nightmare. Anybody help - new ferry area. Many thanks.

Hi Lou.

probably in the region of £30 - £40. if you fancy having a go yourself though its straight forward enough.

First thing to do is run a full Anti virus scan using AVG or another free program.

Secondly run a malware scan using Malware Bytes.

once these have been cleared carry out all Windows updates to make sure you are bang up to date.

Run CCLeaner and clear out all logs and temps, carry out a reg repair at this point also.

Next download defraggler and defrag the hard drive.

Reset Internet explorer to default settings.

These steps will clear pretty much every issue, if you still have problems with pop ups and what have you when complete you can post back and we can help you further.

If the hard ware is very old then it may be worth looking at new hardware with a clean install of Windows 7 / 8 and then migrate the photos over to the new PC.

If you are not confident or would like to pay someone to do this for you i am sure that either myself or TheDr can assist.

Hope this helps.

Personally, I'd copy all the required files over to an external hard drive then format the C: and install Win XP instead. Probably quicker too.

I'd use Firefox (free) in place of IE. It has a great pop-up blocker.

I fully appreciate that this is a matter of opinion but I wouldn't recommend to anyone (especially people who are not 100% IT Savvy to install XP, it's not sustainable. If you have it installed fine, you should be considering phasing it out. If you don't have it installed great but don't go and install it! I loved XP like everyone else but the party is over! If you are just a browsing type person you should consider Linux. If. That's not something that you want to get in to then windows 7, home edition will run just fine on 2gb ram.

Agreed .. well said

Yeah look at windows 7, that's the best substitute for XP. Look for all the photos by doing a search in the windows file search for all photos and back them up to a CD or DVD, or even a USB stick and then install windows 7 and put them back on. You could upgrade your windows vista with windows 7 without losing files, but I recommend a clean install and getting the latest drivers for things like your sound card and video card etc.

Hi there,
I never used XP,so cannot say from personal experience,but from what I hear,7 is much better,and very user friendly (always a good thing as far as computer as concerned!)that I can vouch for.I was running a desktop PC with 2Gb RAM,and thought it was OK,but as time went on and I got a new laptop with 8GB RAM,I saw the difference was staggering .I did everything I could to the Desktop(pretty much what you have been told to do) and it never went much faster than what it was already doing.
Cos computers have been getting faster,I think technology has jumped on really fast in the last few years,so buying them and their parts is cheaper,so something that is only a few years old which cost hundreds is now slow and 'difficult' shall I call it My desktop will never be fast,and maybe this could be the same?
Good luck with saving all the stuff you want to,double,triple check you have saved it before you delete,just to be 100%.

Ok if you want if overhauled as you say its running slow on Vista, could you first provide the specs of the PC.

Ccleaner will clean the temp files from the pc etc, however a pc will also need to be cleaned physically. If you want provde me the specs and I can give you free advice on what to do next

Many thanks for all your comments. Much appreciated.