computer troubles

It's not the first time I've had problems with my laptop...the hard drive said farewell to this world six months after I received it as the best graduation gift ever (slightly biased statement). In hindsight it may be because one of my particularly stupid acquaintances threw it from the front seat of the car into the back seat...luckily it was still under warranty, and I only realized that the incident occurred post-stupid-acquaintance-duress AFTER it had been repaired (for free). Alas, the repair included none of the precious, precious files that had been lost with the crash...not too much of a disaster, considering that I'd only just graduated from high school. Most of my angsty writing/memories/chat logs were still on the family desktop. Not all...but most.

Now I'm in trouble again...after freezing up this morning, the computer was shut down and restarted only to display a very primitive "Enter Password" box. And it responds to none of my, y'know, actual passwords. After Google investigations it appears it's a common bug. There's a download from the manufacturers that prevents it, but apparently the download doesn't work AFTER the issue has locked down your computer, and can only be fixed by taking it into a repair center. (Anyone curious as to the exact technical nature should feel free to Google "Toshiba password." That should tell you all you need to know....)

In the meantime I'm stuck on the persnickety Emachines PC, and while it's been fun trawling through old icons & homework assignments I've saved on here, I'm bored already. The only IM program installed is an old version of MSN Messenger. Attempts to log onto Meebo result in the computer freaking out. It's dial up Internet only, but I'm used to that while I'm at home, obviously... Unfortunately the only browser on the computer is an old (how old? not sure) version of IE (the horror, the horror!) I'm attempting to download IE 8, so I'll at least have an up-to-date piece of crap browser...estimated time of download? Four and a half hours. Kill me now.

iTunes isn't installed on this computer, because, as I said, it's persnickety. It's died a few times in the three years since I stopped using it thanks to The Blessed Graduation Laptop. Pretty much all of the files were recovered thanks to my dad's computer wizardy (it's more like mail order computer magic, Bedknobs and Broomsticks style, really), but apparently not all of the programs. Hence, no iTunes. And I'm not planning on adding that to my list of Things to Download (includes IE 8 and possibly Trillian, if I'm ambitious) - the first time I downloaded iTunes for this computer, I had to leave the Internet running all night. No me gusta.