"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." In the second week of January this year, as we put the finishing touches to LPT's 11th Annual CD (and now Broadband) Edition, I decided to make some 'improvements' to our aging desktop computer configuration -- and thus ignored 'The First Cardinal Rule of Computing', a rule I know by heart after 30 years of hard-earned experience in the computer business. To wit: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Ignoring this Cardinal Rule has almost always caused me heartburn over the years -- so you won't be surprised to hear that I got roasted this time too... at a cost, already, of more than 250 unplanned work hours (which overlapped our 6-year-old grandson's school break visitation) and nearly $2000 in unbudgeted cash (for a spanking new Acer Notebook desktop replacement configuration plus accessories). And our problems aren't entirely behind us yet. Here's what happened... Our old PC desktop computer (with its Pentium III at 733MHz) had been showing its age for a year, at least -- as it struggled to keep up with the demands of our peripheral-laden Windows XP multi-media configuration, in the new high speed ADSL communication environment. (I'm referring here to Windows XP 'Lite' -- enhanced only by Service Pack 1... I had tried XP Service Pack 2 in early 2006 but it slowed our desktop computer down so badly that I rolled back to Service Pack 1 the same day.) Clearly, it would soon be time for a complete hardware configuration upgrade. And besides...the Windows Vista operating system was now shipping and we'd need to catch that wave before summer -- an impossible task for our old desktop computer. Still... in hopes of delaying the conversion cost and effort for a couple of more months, I thought I might freshen-up our pokey (though perfectly functional) XP Service Pack 1 configuration, via the XP Upgrade Procedure -- to clear XP's innards of cobwebs and give the operating system a temporary new lease on life on our desktop. Surely, I reasoned faultily, that'll buy me a couple of months of improved performance before I'd have to make the inevitable full-blown hardware/software replacement. So, with hardly a second thought, I (insanely) slipped the Windows XP Upgrade CD into the desktop's CD/DVD bay... And as the XP Upgrade Procedure started up, I began my descent into the Black Hole of Calcutta... In Part 2 -- Down and down I go...