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More Clues
I took the box of eternal darkness to Laboratory Computers and illustrated my dilemma with charts, hand motions, and impressive animations. OK, what really happened was he looked in the box and said, "Oh, it's not grounded." He thinks that the black screws I used to attach the motherboard to the case (which I could have sworn were the same screws I got with the damn case years ago, and were the screws I used to attach the previous motherboard) were (a) insufficient in number and (b) painted, so not so much with the conducting. I find this to be an Interesting Safety Tip. Further useful info was the general lack of a horrible stench, or popped capacitors, both of which I'm told would be dire signs of a blown board. Switched power supplies are apparently meant to blow outward, to prevent (in most cases) just such a calamity.
They're going to replace the power supply & do other funny things to it & make sure my copy of Windows XP gets successfully installed. Since I was getting bluescreens during installs last night, I feel pretty good that if they get past that point, we might be doing OK. This will take a few days, putting Paragon City in further and further peril, but one must do what one must do in the face of Evil Geniuses on every corner. Still, it will hopefully be fresh faced and ready to go by the time I'll need to be cleaning demons off Mars in early August.
Next time I need to remember that I know software, not hardware, and to pay the nice people up front to make it work. 5:07:01 PM () 
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