Consumer Watch: Oklahoma Man's New Computer Seems Used

Amanda Taylor, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Joe Golden enjoys his home computer and considers himself tech savvy. But the former top secret photographer with the U.S. Navy has a mystery even he can't solve. It started right after he brought his brand new computer home in January 2009.

"I discovered there was a woman's name in the computer," Golden said. "She said she was the owner of it and her name was ‘Jill'."

Joe didn't think much about it until a year and a half later when the computer started slowing down. So he defraged his computer, a process to clear out the so called "junk." That's when he made another shocking discovery.

"The last defrag on it was a year before I bought it," Golden said. "Immediately I thought I had been scammed because I felt like I had a refurbished computer and paid for a new one."

So Golden called News 9 Consumer Watch.

"I knew Amanda was good at getting things solved and that's why I called your station," Golden said.

Consumer Watch called computer expert Tom Menasco with "The 3 Geeks."

He had an explanation for the old dates.

"My best bet would be the old files you're seeing are preloaded information from what was loaded by Gateway before the box was built," Menasco said.

In other words, most computers will have older dates somewhere in them. That signifies when the system was originally created.

Menasco said the name "Jill" was most likely a mistake.

"I think the guy at the bench, when you said get this machine ready, they had something else laying there with "Jill" on it," Menasco said.

"It was interesting because I had unanswered questions that I didn't have any idea about," Golden said.

Menasco said it's common for computers to slow down over time. He recommends uninstalling applications you don't use and defrag your computer regularly. You will find steps on how to do that on News9.com/Consumer Watch.