Trouble is to register I've got to get past a default HTML page that tells me that my PC can't connect to the internet, a ping\network connection repair\network card uninstall and reinstall that all tell me that the DNS server can't be contacted or has failed to respond. Funnily enough I didn't get my original welcome letter so had to ring up and get the details which I still have written down - I would welcome the chance to use them.
Ok - I've just spent three hours installing XP - the set-up didn't even give me the option of a repair install, (presumably because I've got Eveshams OEM version of XP). About half way down the first page of the XP reinstall guide on
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/, what was happening on my screen was going off on a completely different tangent. I then had to install the software for stuff like the Nvidia networking card and such-like, and I've still got a small stack of CD's for tomorrow night. So of course I've lost all the personal files, mails etc - which hopefully are backed up because I copied them over to my son's hard drive before removing the network connection.
And I bet you can guess what I still haven't got after all that
Sorry to sound tetchy - its just that's another weekend wasted and if anything I'm worse off than I was on Friday night - even the big overkill solution doesn't appear to solve this one!