Problems with my laptop

I've written a couple of posts in the last couple of months about laptops for writers: a post comparing different mini netbooks, and a post yesterday comparing netbooks with the small laptops available right now.

I'm sure you've been wondering why I've been posting about such subjects, when I admittedly love my little 3-pound Averatec so much. Unfortunately, I've been having ongoing — and steadily worsening — computer problems. It used to be just that Outlook would freeze periodically, taking my entire computer with it more often than not. Lately, though, my virtual memory and/or processor have been getting bogged down as well.

I'm thinking that I might need to consider wiping my hard drive and reinstalling everything — starting over, basically. I'm going to have a computer-savvy friend help me with this, but if it doesn't work I will need to consider getting a new computer. My computer locking up has interfered with my work a couple of times now, and I just can't have that happening.

I have considered getting a netbook as a second computer, to try to milk the time I've got left on my Averatec, and financially that would probably be a good way to go. However, it would also mean the hassle of switching files back and forth, making sure that I always have the most recent ones on both computers (or at least on a flash drive). Since I'm not all that good at remembering to back up (one reason why I use Mozy online backup), that might not be the wisest situation to put myself in.

The only other alternative, of course, is getting a new laptop. I haven't completely resigned myself to this yet, mostly because I haven't seen anything out there yet that I like as much as my current laptop. But realistically, it just might come to this.

If you know of any exceptionally small (i.e., about 3 pounds or less) laptops (not netbooks) that are currently on the market, please let me know. I figure I should have an idea of what I'd like to get, just in case it comes to that!