I think that advising a typical homeuser not install any av software is pretty stupid. Get a trojan or keylogger onto your pc and it can really cause trouble. Hell, get one of the many thousands of email virus' on you machine and let them start sending emails left, right and centre not only pi$$es that user off but also every recipent that gets them. And when your pc gets used for mail forwarding from god knows how many other spoof email accounts then let's see what happens to your pc performance.

Well when you put it like that, I can see where your coming from, I take the ignorant attitude that if people are really that stupid then they shouldnt be using PC's in the first place, I guess that is not right.

I have noted your point and I agree with your words above. Even though I try to distance myself from that market of people I do sell most of my PC's to first time user's and I will certainly bear what you have said in mind. Even if I struggle to agree with it mentally.

Now you're confusing me - You sell most of your pcs to first time users, yet you say if people are really that stupid they shouldn't be using pcs in the first place?
Do you actually want to sell anymore pcs?

It doesnt bother me who buys them, I dont have no prejudice if they have the money, but I wont support any of my PC's for software problems, and most are AV / internet related. My business is soley run to the first time cant afford new market and not the repeat customer market, so my attitude will not affect my sales, however when I get to Spain I know this wont be the case and to start with I will have to be my customers best friend til Ive cracked the market Im aiming for

Anyone who suggests that a complete reinstall for an inexperienced user just because the PC is running slower than before is talking bollocks.

Assuming they could even begin to understand how to do it, they would most likely lose all their data and settings and probably never get any apps up and running again.

Its the sort of thing that happens when you take your PC to the local "PC shop" and you get back a PC that runs the OS as quick as lightning but none of the apps work!

your going into a slanging match now, all I said was that will ma ke the PC run faster and it will.

My experience of Local Pc shops is they are rubbish, and they rip you off. your advice is just as bad, telling someone to download and install more progs without even knowing what is the problem Is just the same if not worse. I have seen people install Panda virus for one of a guy on another forum, they installed it and wiped all there system32 files becuase it said they were infected, Great advice, next boot up "NTLDR missing"

Fred fiar enough if you are stuck in your way's but dont post such drivel

I have been reading these posts,and to be quite frank ( correct me if Im wrong) but you appear to be coming across as if you don,t care about who you sell to, and it appears your market is selling to first time users who would have little knowledge of PC,s and you are not supporting problems. I cant believe that you have advised not to use AV and that you suggested that she should wipe her discs and start from scratch,I will agree that AV software Norton is rubbish,I removed it from my system and replaced it with another AV.Norton did cause loads of problems.What market are you aiming for , the ones with little Knowledge, I,m no expert on PC,s but after reading your comments I wouldn,t buy one from you.
There are some users on here that have given sound advise when peeps are having PC problems,Iv had my fair share of problems and if I did need to wipe everything clean Id take it to an expert,I dont think unless one is very experienced should even attempt it.

Why don't you post this in The Lab? Lots of knowledgeable folk in there to help you.

Yes great idea,lets see what they think in there about wiping the discs clean

No thats mostly correct, and why should I support software problems that arent my doing, if I did that id never earn no money.

If you buy a car and dont put no oil in it or put diesel in a petrol motor, or vice versa would you expect the garage to repair free because of your incompetence, I very much doubt it, its the same logic, If someone buy's a PC of me and they F**k it up within a month, Ill reinstall the windows as they bought it, thats it, If they have a hardware problem no worries its covered under my warranty.

If they go and let there kids go on it and do all sort's no way am i gonna sit round there house and reinstall it as they bought it, they get a Cd with it to do that, Ill give limited support on the phone.

Im quite upfront about the warranty people recieve if any and its there choice to purchase.

dont think unless one is very experienced should even attempt it.

What experience do you need by the way, you dont need any, its really not hard to install a OS, for instance, if you insall Vista from new, you have about 4 options all the way through, the Language, time and date, not much else, it does it for you.

I have guided people over the phone and through text/sms to re-install Its no big deal, backing up before is, but no lies, some people just want rid.

Im going to do my best to avoid replying to an computer problems in this forum coz I not wanting to be flamed no more

Don't think that this is helping anybody!
If someone was to take a "Slow running" pc to an "expert" the amount of time and therefore cost involved to put it right and retain all of the data could be huge. There is no "easy fix". Each case is different.
No body who builds computers for a living, either in Spain or in the UK can put a warranty on the software installed, because many users, especially "new" users are the ones that cause the problems through their lack of knowledge. Therefore, the honest answer would be to suggest a reinstallation of the software, as this is the fastest, and therefore cheapest option.
Obviously, this is not ideal, but if the user has followed a strict back up regime and saved all the important stuff, then it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Sadly, very few people do backups, and then moan at the cost of having it put right.
How many people even know that they should occasionally run their anti virus scans in safe mode? How many have actually used safe mode? The same could be said of the anti malware progs. How many people know of the system restore facility in windows?
My suggestions are to make sure the pc is running an upto date anti virus programme and a decent firewall, do regular housekeeping on the pc, Back up your important data to discs, then ask for several opinions on whatever problems you may have. Asking costs nothing, and most people on here are more than willing to give their time to help!
Regards
Tim

I think I will close this thread as it is serving nobody any good, especially the poster who is travelling to the UK tomorrow.
I think she was looking for a quick fix and we all know that is not possible in the circumstances.