We’ve all been there. Our PCs have become casualties in the war with Moore’s Law. Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel, said that computers would double in power every two years. He may have under-estimated the advance of technology. Computers become obsolete with startling speed. How can you tell when it’s time to upgrade?
Your PC is abysmally slow
Your computer may take longer to start than you remember – a lot longer. The hard drive spins up while sounding like The Little Engine That Could climbing a hill. “I think I can, I think I can” you imagine it saying as it strains to bring you to your desktop. You’ve tried defragging, running ScanDisk, and used every utility you could find but to no avail. If you can count on an abacus faster than your PC can do its job you need to upgrade.
Blue screen of death
If you see this with any frequency you’re either running software your PC can’t handle or the computer is on its last legs. Think about whether you’ve installed a lot of programs lately. Run your anti-spyware and anti-virus software. If cleaning out the trash on your hard drive doesn’t help a new PC may be in order.
You can’t run the software you want
Does that new app you want require more system resources than you have? Is that new game running so slowly that you lose over and over because your PC is letting you down? Does it take several minutes to load the latest version of your favorite web browser? If your PC does not have the horsepower to run the programs you want it’s time for an upgrade.
Microsoft no longer sells your operating system.
If your PC running Windows Millennium, Windows 95, or Windows 2000? You may find it hard to keep up with the times. New software won’t run on old operating systems and Microsoft may not support you if you have problems – even if you pay them for a support call. If you are not running Windows XP – Service Pack 3, or something more recent, you may need to upgrade.
Your PC does everything you need it to even if it’s older.
If so, keep your existing hardware. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.