Q: I bought a Dell XPS B733r computer five years ago but I have only used it occasionally ever since.

My son-in-law will be staying with us over Christmas for several weeks while he works on his doctoral dissertation, I know my computer works okay but the screen has become very faded and grey and the colours are milky. I only use it for sending and receiving the occasional e-mail, mostly from my children who live away.

Sometimes it's not used for weeks at a time. I read your column and you always talk about the need to upgrade and keep up with maintaining computers and although I have tried on occasion to defragment the hard drive the process never seems to completely finish. I get a message saying the process has been interrupted ten times.

I don't know enough to deal with this problem and I'm worried I might be doing something wrong if I force it on through. Also, I have no idea where to go for these updates you write about. I think the computer came with anti-virus software but if that was only good for one year then it probably elapsed years ago.

My son-in-law says he doesn't need anything fancy when he comes, just to be able to write his papers, send e-mails and to research things on the Internet. I have an account with Logic but I haven't updated anything since I got the computer, so what do I have to do now to make it usable for him?

A: When I received this inquiry I contacted the reader and found out the service tag for this PC; every Dell computer has its own unique one. This is located on a sticker somewhere on the outside of the case.

With this code I was able to look up on the Dell site the configuration of this particular computer and many other details down to the day it was manufactured and shipped. Since the original owner had made no changes, it remained its in the original configuration which included Windows 98 SE as the operating system.

I was also able to establish that this computer came with 512 MB of RDRAM, which was a very expensive feature at the time, and gave this Pentium 3, 733mhz computer a surprisingly modern feel and competence and made it suitable for upgrading to Windows XP.

Certainly after all these years this computer would be greatly improved by an upgrade of the old Windows 98 SE operating system to Windows XP Home or Professional. One good thing is that the upgrade path can now entirely skip the unfortunate Windows ME operating system which came in between.

However, when I suggested this option over the phone the owner was not prepared to take the trouble and spend the money to upgrade. This is an individual decision and the reality is that an upgrade can take several hours to carry out, requires expenditure of at least $100 for the new operating system itself, and can be expensive if you're going to pay somebody else to do it for you. Whatever else, be sure to upgrade the anti-virus software.

However, regardless of whether you choose to upgrade or keep the operating system you now have there is no sensible alternative but to upgrade the anti-virus software package.

When I bought one in town last week it cost $57. You could look online for the free downloadable AVG anti-virus software but I can't vouch for its efficacy yet.

Before we go on discussing the other option, i.e. cleaning up the existing Windows 98SE operating system, I want to be clear that, in my opinion, this choice comes in as a distant second to the best move which would be wiping the hard drive and installing a clean XP operating system.

No more bad files, no more BSOD's, that's the infamous 'Blue Screen Of Death' and, if you have Windows 98SE and actually use it, you'll know what I'm talking about. With a fresh XP install on a newly formatted hard drive the PC would be like new, in fact better than Windows 98 SE ever was.

But in this case the decision was to clean up the computer as it is presently configured. The first step should be to acquire up-to-date antivirus software such as Norton or McAfee antivirus, install it, download and install the latest update files and run a complete system check.

Where to go for Windows updates assuming that you have no old resident viruses on your computer? The next thing to do is to go online to the Windows Update site at http//v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp and let Microsoft examine your PC online in an automated process after which you can download the free improvements, security fixes and driver updates that are available for your computer.

There won't be too many more available for the Windows 98 operating system in the future, since Microsoft is no longer developing fixes for it.

I would then download Ad-Aware 6, from www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware.

This is free in the basic version, and can be set to run a complete check of the files resident on your five-year-old computer to see which, (not if), nasty examples of spy-ware are lurking deep in the bowels of your computer, and delete them.

How to get the defragmentation process to complete? The problem experienced with the disk defragmenter being interrupted in its work, which can take hours, is very common and simply means that some process, such as a reminder working in the background, became active and interrupted the defragmentation of the contents of your hard drive.

To deal with this there is a free utility that you can install called End-It-All 2 which can be downloaded from www.techtv.com/callforhelp/freefile/story/0,24330,3359077,00.html

This is very easy to install and run and will help to temporarily shut down all the routine processes that are interfering with the completion of the defragmentation utility. In case anybody reading this thinks this sounds like it might be useful in the Windows XP operating environment, take note, it isn't really necessary. XP uses the Diskeeper defragmentation engine and doesn't need the help of an End-It-All type utility.

New monitors are affordable I see your computer came with a 20-inch Sony flat screen CRT (cathode ray tube) very deep monitor, not to be confused with the LCD (liquid crystal diode) but shallow monitors commonly available nowadays.

These Sony monitors were fantastic for a while, but I'm not surprised to hear that five years later the display has faded unacceptably. I have seen this happen on more than a handful of occasions.

Sadly, there is nothing to be done about it except throw away the old monitor and buy yourself a new one. In town you can probably buy a reasonable 17-inch monitor for around $275 and this ought in to last you for at least three years.

@EDITRULE:

James W. Lapsley of ComputerWorks, specialises in PC repairs, upgrades and advice for the home and small office user. ComputerWorks welcomes your questions and comments. Send your PC questions by e-mail to computerworkslogic.bm or by phone to 293-0992.