Growing old not so bad for newer models

What I like to call the first generation of “long-lasting” computers are generally Windows 98 or Windows ME machines that had enough original horsepower to handle modern Word processing, spreadsheet, Web browsing and e-mail software, along with new generations of programs such as photo editors and music players.

With their well-engineered Pentium III processors, they didn’t turn obsolete two years after they were purchased, and most turned into solid, reliable performers that have never had a chance to gather dust. Many of these computers are still running just fine.

Now here’s the weird thing: there’s a brand new PC sitting next to the old one. I got an early peek to check out software compatibility before we all get new machines over the next few months. The new one is a lot faster — but somehow not enough to overcome my own inertia about moving my files from the old PC. As long as the old one still works, I can keep putting it off. Which is how a lot of people feel about middle-aged computers.

Unfortunately, even the best computers eventually reach the end of the road. Even Web browsing, once a digital sinecure that allowed processors to loaf most of the time — now requires heavy-duty CPU cycles to deal with animations, compressed graphics and other detritus of the advertising medium the Web has become.

The sheer number and variety of attacks on networked computers also force us to run ever-more sophisticated virus checkers, spyware eliminators and firewall programs. None of these programs does anything affirmatively useful — they merely protect us from the bad guys, and use a lot of processing power in the background. Machines built five or six years ago weren’t designed for that much overhead.

Users who don’t take these precautions have their own set of problems — the worst being machines that have been crippled by adware and spyware (a common affliction in households with teenagers). Even without these assaults, Windows itself slows down over time, thanks in part to problems that develop with the registry — the database of critical system settings that can charitably be described as “self-corrupting”.

All of these issues make it hard to diagnose any particular case of what we might delicately call “approaching computer death”, or ACD for short.

You can indeed treat ACD’s symptoms. For example, cleaning up unused files from a nearly full hard drive and running defragmenting software can speed up a slow computer. A variety of utility programs can handle these chores and repair Windows registry, too.

Physically, you can boost an old computer’s memory to 256 or 512 megabytes of RAM — a cheap and effective fix in many cases. More memory lets you run more programs simultaneously without using your hard drive for spillover, which gives security programs some breathing room. You also can add a second hard drive if you’re running out of space.

The computer you buy today is six to eight times more powerful than a PC that cost the same amount five years ago.

If your computer needs a new hard drive and additional memory, it’s easy to spend $250 to $300 before you know it. At the best, you’ll be extending its life another year or so. Compare that to what you’ll pay for a new computer and it’s easy to justify the additional money to buy a shiny new PC to replace the old one.

And if your spouse doesn’t believe you, just tell him/her that I said it was true. Sometimes that works.