Computer Issues

Regular readers (all 5 of you) may remember in the summer me wondering about buying a laptop. I never did that, in part because my old computer was still working fine. Now however, I'm not so sure. It's slowed down considerably in the last few months, especially upon turning it on. I can't get the left speaker to work, though I know this has nothing to do with the speaker itself. Those are problems I can live with.

Yesterday though, something strange happened. I was working on a Word document and the whole computer froze up. I had no choice but to hit the power button and restart. Everything works fine after doing that except for Word. It says I need to insert the disc I got from Word 03 (shows you how old this thing is, though it is XP capable). I don't have that anymore. Everything else works fine, including the rest of Microsoft Office, like PowerPoint and such.

I ordered another copy, hoping it would be a cheap way of avoiding the inevitable switch to the laptop and an investment I don't want to make with money I don't have. If anyone has any suggestions as to what might be going on and what I can do, I would appreciate it. Right now, not having Word at home isn't that huge of a deal because I'm in full grading mode anyway and I can write in my office, but this is a pretty unacceptable situation.