I hate my BB. I won't get another one after my contract expires.

I would NOT back up the OS. BUT, there are sites to go to that allow up to upgrade what you have. You might just be 'old'. Any USB plug works, and I do back mine up occasionally. I have found that unless you are talking to RIM, most people know a little something about the BB- but, no one knows a lot about it. Kind of stinks...I call Verizon (my carrier) all the time and it is often me that figures out the problem- not them.

I had a slowness problem until I got extra memory for my pics.

I had a problem charging. The issues were a bitten through cord and a damaged thing on the device...the 'port' was bent. So, I thought I was charging, but, I wasn't.