It's only fair, 'cause I've started hating them, too.

I told a friend I'd help rebuild his computer. He'd given it to me a couple of months ago to diagnose. After a few swaps in and out, I determined that the motherboard was at fault, and would need to be replaced. I had extensively tested different with known-to-be working power supplies, RAM modules, and even put his hard drive on another PC. I don't have the kind of equipment that would let me test the mother board by more than swapping the bits around it.

Today we went shopping and got a new mainboard and processor. I've got spare RAM, and there's no reason to believe his was bad, nor any of the other components.

Through a shopping flub, we ended up getting a socket 775 CPU and 754 motherboard. We pulled out the motherboard and processor, only to find the CPU had no pins. I was mortified; I thought for sure we'd been given a bum chip, so we took it back to the store. The guy at the return counter was likewise shocked to hear we'd been given a chip with no pins. He went in back to get another, but returned to inform us that that's the latest deal. We went back and looked at some of the matching kind of boards, and sure enough, the pins stick up from the board, suspending the chip, instead of the other way around.

I felt ignorant all of a sudden, but my pal gave me some props for knowing the rest of what was going on. I joked about missing that newsletter, and the matter seemed settled. A quick repurchase of a compatible motherboard, and we're again off and running. A few screws turned into place and the box is reassembled.

Now Windows will briefly boot, but in a flash of error message the PC resets. Now what? This, of course happens with our wives looking over our shoulders. I had estimated about a half hour to get the PC reassembled, allowing for time beforehand to make the selection and purchases, and left the time after to reconfigure Windows to accept the new motherboard and deal with Microsoft support to handle the licensing. My estimate for the physical construction wasn't too far off, but the rest had swelled to three hours of time.

We all had something else to do, and were in fact late for those events, so they left their PC behind for me to finish after we got back, and we'll get together later for a swap when I get the machine up and running.

Now I've got to find out how to A) slow down or log the error message so I can respond and correct Windows, or B) reinstall Windows without loosing any information. I'm able to get the machine to boot with an Ubuntu live CD, mount and investigate the Windows drive, and do some basic repairs with the Windows boot CD.

Unfortunately, all I have is Windows XP Pro stuff, while he's running Windows XP Home. I checked with MS licensing, and it's acceptable to reuse the same license if the mainboard is replaced due to failure; I didn't realize that was part of the EULA. If you upgrade your PC by replacing the CPU, not to mention the mainboard, you're supposed to purchase a new license.

I suspect there's enough low-level change in the mainboard that Windows is barfing when trying to interrogate the system for its peripherals. I would expect the licensing portion to boot farther and wait for a response before rebooting the machine. I'm confident that if I run through the Windows XP setup far enough that it'll recognize it as an "upgrade," and we can move on to getting Microsoft to reauthorize the COA key.

What a dissapointment I felt like, though. First the CPU/motherboard incompatibility goof (I just didn't look close enough to see 754 is not 775...), and then the disconcerting flicker of blue instead of the comforting boot animation. It didn't even impress anyone when I got Ubuntu working on the box, although it provided me with some relief.

This is what I'm supposed to be an expert at...have I become so complacent and lax in my duties to maintain expert status?

Maybe it's because I've swayed from the Microsoft path. I actually prefer the UNIX-like environments like Mac, Solaris, BSD, and LINUX, despite their confines and occasional gaps in application availability.