tjameswhite.com

Well, remember a month ago when we had a lightening strike near our house? We lost the internet at the time — dead router.

Having bought new parts, the desktop has refused to connect to the internet’s tubes. The new wireless router is in place and working — we’ve been carting our laptops to-and-from work — and I have slowly, agonizingly slowly, picked away at various Windows settings.

• I have installed a new ethernet card. No luck
• I have rolled back Windows to before the strike. No luck
• I have been through every network setting I can find. Multiple times. No luck

Today, I tried a Windows repair.

I know.

The repair install seemed to work just fine, until I tried to log in. The process goes something like this:

Windows: I need to activate the product.
Me: OK, do that.
Windows: [working] Product is already active.
Me: Great. [click OK button]
Windows: I shall now log you out.
Me: Um? OK. [log in]
Windows: I need to activate the product.
[go to top]

I suspect it can’t accurately activate because of the lack of internet connection. Which means I can’t log in. Which means I can’t use my computer. Which sucks.

Yes, I have all of the data backed up. And it is on a separate drive.

So what’s next? Any advice? New motherboard? New PC? I hate the idea of a new PC simply because I have:

1. a newish video card
2. a brand new gigabit NIC
3. new memory sticks (that may not be able to go into new PC or new motherboard)
4. new drives (yes, they can move to a new machine)

So perhaps I will look at motherboard combos. Any idea what I should get?