PC Doc

I couldn't blog last night because my computer was at the doctor's.

It has been feeling poorly for some time and needing some attention but things got serious when Fashion Boy tried loading some (legal) software for his digital camera (a cheapie I won at a quiz night) and warning lights and bells started going off all over the monitor.
We aborted the upload but by then the damage was done and the PC had spat the dummy, refusing to recognise the external hard drive (where all the music is stored) or the external DVD drive (which is required for me to play Scrabble). It was at that point I knew I had to act!

An overnight trip to the Doc has fixed those problems, but was not able to deliver the virus demon adware pop-up that has plagued it for a long time. (I've tried online fixes and advice, various cleaning agents, protection and detection programs etc but nothing has moved the little %#*&%@!

I had a look at Hardly Normals this arvo, contemplating whether it's time to put this one out to pasture. Typically, I can buy something 5 times more powerful for half what I paid for this, but should I? That's the question.
I'd like to get a laptop but don't want to let the kids use it so I've at least got half a chance of keeping it safe from all the nasties.

Then I thought about the recent interest rate rises and the fact that our mortgage repayments have gone up by $100 a fortnight in the last 6 months, and decided to persevere with this one for a while longer!

I'm driving a bus load of drama students to Perth tomorrow to go to a play and have an early start, so I'm off to bed.