COMRADES IN DEALING WITH TECHNOLOGY TROUBLES...I think it's probably due for a funeral since the hard drive was taken out and re-installing the system is pretty cumbersome, but there's another laptop lying around which is fairly unused and runs pretty efficiently (other than me having to get used to Windows 8 |D), so I think I should be good to go from now. I hope technology troubles won't come knocking on your door anytime soon, too.