Buy new computer or factory restore old one?

[katpat23]

I have an Asus K53E running Windows 7 and have been having the biggest headache with Microsoft updates for some time. I'm not computer savvy about what goes on behind the scenes on my machine -- I just want to use it, keep it safe, and carry on. I admit I have been a bit of an ostrich about the update issue.

The past weekend, I have probably spent 8 hours in trying to work out the problem.

I am not asking you to work out the problem, because I have decided, since the machine is 4 years old already, to do one of two things:
1) buy a new machine (whether Windows 7 or Windows 8, or -- gulp -- Mac, is a different question)
or
2) factory re-set the current machine and see if that clears up the update issue and lets me have a do-over.

It seems to me that buying a new computer will rely on my moving all my desired programs and documents over anyway through a back-up I can make on a terabyte external drive, so not sure buying a new computer or restoring my old one is any more trouble than the other.

Buying a new one will a) cost me a lot of time to research the one I want, b) tap into a virtually empty wallet, but keeping the old one, just restoring it, means I c) have a nice case and a new battery for my current laptop. I like its keyboard. I know its interface. I have some software for it like Office that I can install on it again.

So, what are your opinions?

[Calum]

That's still a fairly modern and relevant laptop you have there, I wouldn't advise replacing it for what sounds essentially like a software issue.  If you're set on not tracking down the issue and restoring anyway, I would go ahead and do that - if you've had it a little while then you'd benefit from a factory reset anyway, and you've already noted about backing up files and reinstalling programs etc so it sounds like you know what you need to do in that respect.
I would recommend taking an image backup of your machine before you reset it, just in case you miss some files or anything while you're backing up - you can do this with the free edition of Macrium Reflect found here - http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
This gives you a full disk backup which you can restore if anything goes wrong.  Save it to your external drive and keep it safe, just in case.

[SuperDave]

What sort of problem are you having with updates. Do you get an error? What exactly is happening? Did you try running the Action Center?

[patio]

Keep in mind also if you resort to a factory restore you are back to square 1 RE: updates and would be starting over...

[robthegeek]

I have had major problems in the past with updating windows 8, I found factory reset and correct installation works, I can maybe help you if you want.
Note: are you factory resetting from disk or harddrive because sometimes(though rarely) viruses and data corruption can cause damage to the hidden restore partition.