well i wouldn't say my computer is "fixed" but at least now it's relatively usable. barry managed to get windows installed while i was at work. it still won't recognize my second IDE interface. we messed with that for awhile but it wouldn't install the drivers off the cd (maybe they were too old). eventually we changed focus to getting it to recognize my internet card; it didn't really want to do that either until barry swapped the card into a different port.

but i can browse the internet, play games, listen to mp3s, & do most non-cd-related functions, so i'm satisfied for tonight. tomorrow we'll tackle the cd drives again. (i say "we" but barry does most of the work...) & when those finally work i'll begin reinstalling the rest of my important software, drivers, & stuff like that...