Please recommend a good computer maintenance/support company in London for parents' computer?

May 17, 2010 2:56 PM

Can you recommend a good computer maintenance/support company in London that can give my parents' probably ~decade-old Windows PC a thorough checkup - clean out any malware, unnecessary toolbars and startup items that are slowing their computer down - for a reasonable price? (Around how much would it cost?)

If it matters, the computer doesn't have any malware on it that they know of - but it's been so many years, and they don't always know what is and isn't safe to download, so it would be good if their computer could get a checkup, for peace of mind if nothing else, if it's not too expensive. Thanks Mefi!

posted by catchingsignals to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Best answer: Buy a new one and enjoy the change, junk the old one and enjoy that too.
posted by Freedomboy at 3:06 PM on May 17, 2010

Best answer: Sorry that this isn't a direct answer to your question, but I agree with Freedomboy -- getting a new PC might be something to consider. You should be able to track down a new-ish PC for not a high price at all, especially for parents who don't need a powerful computer. It will definitely have a much greater benefit than getting a ten year old PC serviced.
posted by Herschel at 3:43 PM on May 17, 2010

Best answer: If you don't want to shell out for a new computer, why not just backup any important data and reinstall the OS? Then at least it's like a decade old computer fresh out of the box.
posted by gfrobe at 4:31 PM on May 17, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks everyone - I just realised it may not be quite a decade old, but still, must have been five or six years at least. Did recommend they buy a new one, and I think they will eventually, but they want to have a computer each to use. And if this one is still working and they're familiar with it, they wouldn't want to throw it away - parents, y'know? I just worry they have some malware on their computer they don't know about after all these years, since they've been saying how it's been slowing down. Can't do a reinstall for them myself right now (and not sure if they even have the xp cd anyway), so I'm hoping someone professional wouldn't be too expensive. It would be good for them to have someone to call anyway, when I'm not around to help them.
posted by catchingsignals at 5:06 PM on May 17, 2010

Best answer: Is there any way for you to install GoToMyPC or another remote access program and clean it up yourself? Install CCleaner on it, and remove all the junk.
posted by holterbarbour at 5:38 PM on May 17, 2010

Best answer: I imagine any independent high street computer shop can and will do this for under £100. The more fixed a brief you can give them the liklier is they can commit to a price over the phone. The performance of older computers can be significantly improved and as you mention there are security benefits. In addition to the once over, ask them to install some free antivirus and antimalware software too. There are probably some UI tweaks that could be carried out, too.

Here are some things you might want to include. Give me a shout if I can help in any way.
posted by nthdegx at 2:58 AM on May 18, 2010

Best answer: Also, I second gfrobe's suggestion if your parents have the requisite disks.
posted by nthdegx at 3:00 AM on May 18, 2010

Response by poster: Belated thanks everyone, much appreciated - I'll talk to them and see what they want to do.
posted by catchingsignals at 3:52 PM on May 31, 2010