I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 circa 2004 (?) running XP. It has become slow as molasses, even after regularly running CCleaner, anti-spyware, etc., etc. and storing most large files on an external hard drive.

The person I've used in the past does house calls but he now charges a $35 travel fee ( ). Last time he fixed the issues I was having he mentioned that the slowdown was most likely due to a need for upgrading the memory to newer standards.

Anyone around NC State willing to check it out and do whatever is needed for a reasonable hourly rate? Could you check it out for an hour and give me an estimate of what needs to be done and estimated time? I'm not expecting 100% accuracy, would just like to know what I'm looking at expense-wise before hand. I figured I'd give someone local looking to pick up some side work a chance.

PS - If this is better suited for Tech Talk, feel free to move it. Thanks in advance!

3/2/2009 8:58:32 PM

probably just needs a laptop oil change

laptop oil is just bit grease, it lubricates the bits as they move from one memory address to another.

3/2/2009 9:32:10 PM

best bet is to reinstall windows.

3/2/2009 10:02:29 PM

I'll take care of it for a flat fee of $50 for labor. You'll only need to pay for parts if that is part of the problem (flakey ram or hard drive starting to go can cause such slowdowns, I'll test it all). You don't pay anything until its finished and ready for pickup, and you're happy with how its running. Turnaround time is usually 24 hours as long as nothing special needs to be ordered parts wise (which won't be the case with a 9300).

3/2/2009 11:00:48 PM

^^

3/3/2009 12:26:48 AM

i was going to come in here and offer to do it

but then i saw that carl had posted, and carl is the fucking man.

get carl to do it. he is good people.

3/3/2009 3:12:08 AM

Thanks to all!!!!! Fuzion sent me a PM so I already gave him first dibs, but if it doesn't happen in the next few days, I'll be sending PMs to those who offered. Appreciate the advice and willingness to help

Oh, and the darn alt key top popped off today and won't go back on. I'm over it.

[Edited on March 3, 2009 at 6:56 PM. Reason : user]

3/3/2009 6:56:24 PM

I'd second fregac if you ever need any work done. He's a great guy, honest, willing to talk to you if you have questions, and most importantly, knows his stuff. Cant go wrong.

3/3/2009 11:34:40 PM

I can't believe you are going to try to rip her off for $50.

All she has to do is restart the pc and hit Control + F11 and follow the instructions to restore.

3/4/2009 9:33:17 AM

^ Um, I dunno, maybe she doesn't want everything on her HD deleted? Maybe it actually IS a hardware problem of some sort, and that won't fix it? I thought it was a pretty reasonable price.

3/4/2009 12:54:43 PM

$50 is reasonable.

3/4/2009 1:02:01 PM