Can An Old Pc Be Saved?

[Scarlett]

I have an old PC which still runs on XP. It screams and whirs and generally sounds like it's going around Brands Hatch when I use it. I also have a new PC which I don't trust. It got stuck trying to move small files from one hard drive to another, and I had to do a Windows 7 restart. For that reason I am reluctant to bin my old PC for the new one. Is there any way I can recondition this old one, so it sounds happier, and just run less on it? It has been a good machine in all ways apart from the fan sound and being out of date. What should I do to attempt this?

[Old_Geezer]

One wonders what's causing the noise. Might need replacing before it fails.
Disks develop errors. Memory can too. Processors give up the ghost. As long as spares are available a PC can be kept going for ages, but there's a limit to how long it's worth it. Old operating systems cease to be supported/patched. New software may not run due to lower spec. Thing to do is try to get your new system trustworthy as soon as possible.

[ivor4781]

i had one of these running xp, a quick hard thump on the casing top cured the brands hatch effect,:-)

[Hopkirk]

It might just need hoovering out. Dust clogs up the cooling fan.

[mikey4444]

I would try what Hoppy has suggested but PCs are so cheap these days, that it may be much cheaper in the long run, to simply replace it. I bought a smashing Lenovo PC from PC World last summer, and it was only £300.

[Guilbert53]

How are you moving the files from one computer hard drive to another?

Are the PCs connected in some way, or is it over a network or what?

I see you had another question asking about moving files from one PC to the other so I will try to help in that area and if we can fix that it may sort out why you are not happy with the new W7 computer.

[Togo]

Your old pc needs to be opened up and cleaned up with a dry 2 inch paint brush and vacuum cleaner. The fan blades will need to be removed and washer and dried, and the bearing, or bearings if there is more than one fan, cleaned up and oiled. I suspect that the noise you are getting may be the old hard drive whining and squeaking as it spins. The only cure for that is a new hard drive. I put a 1TB semi solid state seagate drive in mine and it is fast and quiet. You will need to do a complete back up to an external source first and with a ssd hard drive you do not need to do a partition.

[ummmm]

My used to make a racket until it hoovered out.

[fender62]

Togo, if i may say, you do not clean the bearing on a fan the ar basically a sealed unit, you can however clean the fins on the fan as you say with a paint brush, and a little servicol on the bearings, but a fans are so cheap, just replace them or one whatever you have, plenty on ebay, just check either three pin or four on connector. using a hoover is a good idea though. a lot of problems with old pc's is lack of memory, and low cpu ie old pentiums, least you want is an intel i5, lower than that an i3 but pointless spend a few quid more, i wont go into amd processors.