Computer Help and Support

Yes, everything was a nerve wracking Manhattan Project thing for me - unscrewing the bottom cover (I wasn't expecting the slotted latches after the screws).

And what was in there? Yes, there was a NOTICEABLE amount of little caked on dust especially on the blades of the fans, plus some stray bigger motes around the different hardware parts. There was NOT the humongous amount like needing to take outside to blow out. I had no idea what the insides looked like and that the fans' blades were (rubber?). I had everything on hand (tiny screwdriver; can of air) never before used. Anyway, the canned airing blew the loose dust but left some of the crusted on stuff. I used a Q-tip to do a little but not much.

Now, in the first powering on, the machine seemed to ZIP on and load up a lot faster than I've been used to.

*********As for everything before this, I saved my few really important files onto a flash drive and downloaded the Carbonite free trial, which took about 20 minutes to do the backup (the instructions said the first time might take days). There were only 6,000 files, which tells you how little stuff I've got.

And I looked into Task Manager and all of the things listed were at 0% useage, with the only 30% being the anti-virus software.

Anyway, it looks like I might be putting off replacing the machine for now. But also looks like I might as well be surrendering to another yearly expense along the lines of the anti-virus, now Carbonite?

Thanks to everybody. Don't tell Lounge I've been flirting with this Group!1