Finally...

I now have a computer to use again! Yay!

The darn thing crashed on the last day of NaNoWriMo but I was lucky to pass the 10K mark before the crash. After it restarted by itself, the hard drive couldn't boot Windows XP and was totally useless. Something about having system files corrupted and needs the original Windows XP Home CD to fix it, but since this is an OEM version (meaning end user isn't supposed to own a copy of the CD), that's where the headache starts.

Brought it to a computer shop on the next day to see what it could be done, it seemed easy enough but it turns out that they don't have a copy of the WinXP Home edition CD, original or not. So, after reformatting, the hard drive seemed to lock out any other operating systems - Win98, Win2000, Longhorn - all useless. =\ The repairman and his two apprentices spent the rest of the day messing with the operating systems. He said that the hard drive from HP may have been secured, and it was almost good as a paperweight.

Components changed: Old Phillips CD writer + old Sony CD-ROM reader (both unusable) -> New TDK CD-RW/DVD combo drive

Day number 3 involved testing using a brand new hard disk. It was ruined after that. The fog dissipated and everything was crystal clear. The fault lies in the darn motherboard! Eh, they tested the old hard disk from another computer and it was working, strange.

Components changed:
1. Old and dusty motherboard with no brand -> New Abit SG-17 motherboard
2. Old original HP pavilion casing -> New iCute casing, it had three fans and the design was pretty nice
3. Old floppy disk drive -> New Sony floppy disk drive
4. Two sticks of 128MB SDRAM, one original HP Infeneon, the other Kingston -> 256MB Kingston DDR RAM (trade in)

Components retained:
1. Pentium 4 1.5Ghz processor
2. 40GB Maxtor hard disk
3. Nvidia Geforce2 graphics card
4. 56Kbps internal modem

All assembled and packed at the end of day three but it was scheduled to be sent at day four.

Received phone call that he's busy at 7pm on day four, postponing it for the next day.

Arrived at 10pm on day five, everything was set up but had a slight problem with Streamyx. Can't connect. *Bangs head* Made a phone call to Telekom but I eventually realised that I typed the username wrong. *Bangs head again*

Good side was that I found my computer was now running Windows XP Professional edition. o_O At least it was a free upgrade. The whole ordeal costed RM615 and the internet cafe there must be rich now...