Computer Blues

After recurring problems with my ancient PC had gotten a lot worse over the past weeks, I decided to replace it with a new machine. I'm on a tight budget, but I was able to find a good computer within my price range. It arrived soon after I ordered and I was glad to finally have a shiny and sparkly PC that actually operates the way I want it to...or so I thought.

I've spent over one week doing practically nothing but weeding out the issues the new computer was having. It was a draining experience, ranging from minor annoyances (Windows XP occasionally not remembering some of my user profile settings after a reboot) to severe problems (Norton AntiVirus -- also known as Resource Hog Extraordinaire -- giving me a critical system error on my attempt to uninstall it, leaving me with a corrupt install). I didn't even get a Windows CD with my PC (although I have since contacted the manufacturer, who mailed me a copy) so I couldn't just wipe it clean and make a fresh install. Credit goes to my brother, who works as an IT server specialist, for aiding me in this time of peril. As far as I can tell, things seem to be working smoothly now (knock on wood), so I can finally return to my regular schedule of working on commissions and my own projects.

I hate PCs. :(