Thanks, we're up and running

Thanks especially to DaveW (short but correct) and LarryMoe'n'Curly, who is
no stooge after all.

My son's ABIT IS7 motherboard apparently popped a capacitor for unknown
reasons, disabling the BIOS. It would not post, didn't even beep, though
the fans were running. I replaced the motherboard with an ASUS P4P800 and
am now in the final stages of configuring drivers, updating AntiVir, etc.

The final step in all this was the great adventure of re-activating Windows.
Windows would not start without reactivation, the Ethernet card could not
operate without drivers installed, the drivers couldn't be installed without
Windows running, so I had to do the reactivation over the phone. This, my
friends, is a major pain. It was worse for me because I was trying to
follow instructions from a robot that understood a limited number of voice
commands and my number-lock was not set, and people were talking to me the
whole time: Is it gonna work? How soon can I have my computer? Now can I
have the other computer? Are you sure you didn't break it forever?

On the second try, however, I got it.

--
P.