My (mis)adventures with HP.com

May 29, 2007

(I'm going to preface this post with a few bits of info. (1) I've never been much of a hardware guy, and having not purchased a new PC in a couple of years, I am very out of the loop on some current information. (2) Typically I do not purchase name-brand machines (aside from when my family members need a laptop, then I happily point them to Dell.com. So many of the events noted below were things I've a) never done before or b) haven't dealt with in a number of years. And away we go...) As some of my readers know, I'm currently upgrading my office - new bookshelf, a bigger corner unit so I have room to work, and some software/hardware upgrades too (pictures to come as soon as it's finished). My latest upgrade was supposed to be easy: purchase one of these new HP boxes from my local Frys, replace Vista (gag) with XP Pro, and I should have a new general purpose workhorse machine for the office. Well, the HP process did not go as smoothly as I had pictured it in my head...