Why would you say that? If I post a question on a forum, I am doing so because I want public recommendations. That way if someone posts a crazy idea that's not going to be good for my situation, I'll probably know it's a crazy idea because four other people will chip in and say, "that's crazy!"

The only reason I can see for recommending that someone email you is so that you can peddle your services without anyone calling you on it.

There is another way to establish yourself as a competent computer technician willing to help others out if they're willing to pay for it. You could answer questions in detail. Give detailed, free advice and others will know how good you are based off of your suggestions and other people's responses to your suggestions. This is what tedbear does on the precision forum all the time and I would guess that he gets business off of it without ever asking anyone to email him.

To the original poster, I would say be careful spending too much money on a 6 year old computer. If I were in your situation I would back up all my data. This is the most important first step and cannot be over-emphasized. When you have a computer that old especially, the probability of losing everything starts growing exponentially. I doubt anyone will be happy if all the pictures are lost, and there are probably other important things on there besides that.

The second thing I would do would be to look around and make sure that I have disks for all the software (both programs and drivers for hardware) that is on the computer. If I had disks for all the software on the computer, I would re-format the hard drive and re-install Windows XP on it. I would then install the drivers, update Windows XP, then install one (only one, sounds like you have two) free antivirus solution like AVG or Avira and then install all my software, update any software that needs updating and then update Windows XP one more time.

Most people aren't comfortable doing all of that. If you are not, I would still make sure to back up everything. If you don't know how to do that, you need to know how. Learn however you have to. Then get quotes from local computer guys on how much they'll charge to re-format and re-install everything like I mentioned. Factor in the cost of purchasing any software that you might have to purchase if you've lost any of your disks. If this number gets much over $200, I'd be looking at buying a new computer. I really wouldn't want to spend much money on a 6 year old computer like I mentioned before...but that's just me.