No not that, it's that certain core parts of windows malfunction for little to no reason. I have a second serial on my windows CD and that's what I use for this PC, the first serial operates flawlessly, but the 2nd does not. Even though we bought it directly through the phone. The 2 pcs are almost identical, yet mine still malfunctions.

For example, I install Unreal Tournament 2004 and it forces me to install the Speech Tools SDK. Once that SDK is on my system, ANYTHING which uses OLE/COM interfaces go bonkers. Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, StarOffice, and many more ... obviously I cannot use SpeechTools and anything else. Yet the same problem occurs when I install the .Net support as well.

See why now? After 6, yes 6, reformats to pinpoint the exact problem I find there's no fix. I'm the only one "ever" to report this, and as far as MS is concerned ... 1 ain't nearly enough. So I've kinda had it with M$.