So, the motherboard replacement, I mentioned in my previous entry, worked out just fine. A modest outlay has given me a completely working box again, and no leftover parts (well, okay, maybe a few screws). The CMOS battery was DoA (but that's not surprising for a five year old board) so the only real gotcha was that the behaviour of the audio ports didn't match the documentation in the manual. Thankfully I didn't have too much to lose, so trying my headphone jack in the "microphone" socket wasn't that risky. Actually, the problem may lie with the autodetection function of the Realtek driver. I'm not that fussed now that I have sound. I didn't realise that you could buy replacement latex mounting grommets for Antec fans, so mine are now held in place with wire ties and Blu-Tack.

"Are you from the past?"
I have been introducing my S.O. to The IT Crowd. When watching one of the shows from an early series she was puzzled when I pointed out the show was dated now because there was a LOLCat poster on the wall - but NOT because they had an Altair, a PET and a ZX81 on display.

Speaking of things becoming dated, I am wondering if Rich Lam's Vancouver couple photo will be the modern equivalent of Alfred Eisenstaedt's Times Square V-J Day picture. We'll see.