I few months ago I almost gave away my ancient XP32 laptop (10 years old this year). It is on its last legs, battery won't even hold enough charge to remember the date while switched off, and the keyboard has a whole row of dead keys. Thank heavens I kept it, last week I had reason to resurrect some old parametric solids modelling and finite element analysis software and it won't even install on win7.

Zero chance of getting any help from either software company, both have been bought out by bigger ones, one of which is autodesk where you can't even make contact with a live person in the support dept unless you buy the latest version plus a maintenance contract.

With a fresh install of XP and a usb keyboard the laptop is back in business but it'll have to stay disconnected from the net.