Hey folks, bumping this post again because my computer is making me sad. I upgraded my RAM so I've got 8GB now and I've got a 1TB hybrid SSD hard drive that seems to be doing well. Did a fresh install and imported my data. Lost a handful of settings and contacts (I still have the hard drive if I really wanted to bother), but it was a pretty successful transfer.
One thing I neglected to mention before is that two of my three USB ports are fried. Basically only one of them works so if I want to use multiple USB ports at a time I'm using a hub.
In more troubling news, my battery was not working correctly. On and off for a while I'd had the "Service Battery" notice when I was working on battery power. I took a gamble and bought a third party battery on
eBay. It seemed great for a week and now I don't dare run the computer without being connected to the power supply. Once while the battery icon indicated 50% life, the computer just shut down and I've since received the "Service Battery" notice again. I'd read a message somewhere that the cost to get Apple to put a genuine battery in was around $175. Should I splurge or just keep on keeping on as best I can until I can afford a new system?