Nekroun

I used to use the Norton Anti-Virus software when I first started using anti-virus software, but I did some research, and I came across war-docs which pointed out the fact that Norton is the biggest anti-virus software company on the market. What this means is that, since they're the biggest, they're the most common, and so virus writers write their virii, to not be detected by Norton. I understand that some virii are so complex that they can even uninstall during a scan then re-install afterwards, preventing detection. To work around this problem I now use an off-band of anti-virus software called AVG Free Edition anti-virus. I Also use http://www.antivirus.com/, which is an online scanner from Trend Micro.

I agree with the other people who posted that turning off the computer at least once a day is helpful. This statement is especially true if your using Microsoft Windows, because The way the OS is written, when programs are stopped, The OS doesn't always 'reclaim' the ram that it was using to run the programs. There is also an error in the earlier Microsoft OS's that if run for 47 straight days, the OS will barf. I don't feel that the energy usage is really a problem though, because of the Engery Star compliant equipment that is out on the market nowdays. The real damage to the computer comes into play in the design of the modern computers. An example of this is, like my ex-girlfriends HP computer, in size, it is a little tiny box, with not much space for air-flow, with only one fan, and the unit is a metal box covered by a plastic box ... What happens is that as the machine runs the components build up heat which has no where to go & the heat degrades the components quicker. Shortly after it was bought I had to replace the CD-Rom drive for her because the heat built up in the machine and fried the piece! To work around this type of problem, I hand built my own computer. I used a large metal box, with no plastic covering. It also has a fan for the power supply, but I didn't stop there ... I attached a fan to my larger Hard Drive and I put a fan in the box itself. My computer is designed to run continually - like a server, but even I turn it off once a day!

I used to get the BSOD for deleting files. I know this sounds like a problematic thing to do, but it shouldn't be. Every so often, as I use the Internet, I like to 'clean-up' my computer, The first thing I'll do is run the Ad-aware software & then I run the Spybot Search & Destroy software. I do this to try and clear out any extra .exe's & .dll's that may be slowing down the OS and using up my ram. Then I go into C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 & manually delete all the folders so that I don't have to worry about possible virii. The computer usually pauses a bit after this last step, but it doesn't usually 'lock-up'. I wait a minute or two then I launch my browser and start browsing, every time I'd do this I'd get the BSOD. The only solution I found to this problem is, first making sure that my browser is closed, & not just minimized, and then to turn off the computer, wait two minutes, and then reboot.

Reading about your computer sure brings back a few memories for me. The first computer that I ever remember owning was a beastly thing called an Atari 400. It had 16k of memory, and the OS was contained on a Eprom chip. (It looked like one of those cartridges that came with the old Atari 2600 machines that we used to play Pac-Man on.) You openned a little flap in the top cover of the machine, and plugged it in, and then you could write simple programs. You could also play the 2600 cartridges on it. The unit had only a tape cassette recorder to save your work on, as there were no hard drives as of yet, and the language it used was similiar to Pet Basic. The only difference was that some of the PEEK & POKE codes didn't always work. I remember it as being around 1982 when this machine came out, but I'm not entirely sure that, that is an accurate timeframe. As to the display, you also had to hook it up to a T.V set, with a RF Modulator - The computer did not have a whole lot of colors, 16 if I can remember correctly.