Well, it's turned into an interesting thread. Drift is like a good gene-pool, it opens up more possibilities for discussion.
I woke up this morning worried that my rambles might have been faaaaaar too tedious . . . a result of learning to touch-type as fast as I can talk + vino. But some of the issues are valid info for the unwary.
When running my computer company in the UK, I had a loosely formed association with an IBM dealership. I took my CAD expertise into his magnificent showrooms, and he allowed me to impress my clients in rooms as big as dance halls. It worked quite well for a time. While I was there, he tried to get a Compaq dealership. He didn't qualify. The same man that was flown to Nice in a private jet by IBM, just wasn't in the Compaq league. Well, so Compaq thought.
Oddly, my company was born by buying and selling - as second-owner, IBM over-stock. Wife and I took a deep breath, and bought a London dealer's entire last year's stock. Well, they couldn't sell them . . . or wern't allowed to discount them. Same thing really.
This was when an XT cost three thousand quid out of the showroom. When the AT arrived, the chip was just powerful enough to run the first PC based AutoCAD offerings. Roland did the rest. Halcyon days.
Anyway, I've just re-packed this piece of tinsel, and will return it later today.
Still sweating on the memory upgrade after the crash, but I did notice the microwave clock was flashing after shutting down last night. It would explain what I saw if we'd had a brown-out. Fingers crossed.