Thanks
@Magus. One problem: My cats shred styrofoam like there's no tomorrow. They find styrofoam &they have to claw it. However, I found a 20pack of litterpan shields for cheap and used them to protect the computer. Sucker is mounted on the wall where they can't reach it. And holy shiznit, I need to get a swiffer duster on that wall. LOL.
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Thus far they have not tried to pee on the new UPS-- I will set up some litter shields for it eventually. Right now the basket and hood are working. I put a plastic drawer thingy next to it that they prefer to sit on so that has helped.
My next aggravation came from the fact that the wifi antenna that came with the motherboard disappeared. I'm fairly certain it is still at my friend's house somewhere or that it fell out of the truck when my brother was opening a door (he lets stuff fall out or knocks stuff out and does not put it back in-- will leave it on the ground to get ruined). But I don't recall seeing it when we were packing up stuff after he put the motherboard in so pretty sure its over there. So there was almost no signal. However, this morning I remembered I had leftover antennas from an old router. I had removed them and set them on a shelf. Found them and put them on so it has enough signal to reach the modem in the next room.
Next problem was that my version of windows 10 pro unregistered when we upgraded all the hardware. When I tried to troubleshoot to re-register it gave me an error that it could not connect to the server "try again later". So I tried over and over. Could not find the CD with the code but eventually was able to retrieve the registration key from following some instructions online. Put that in and it wouldn't work. Contacted Microsoft support & they told me the code was not valid and went on to explain that "free" upgrades to windows 10 were no longer supported. But this wasn't free. I bought it. They said it must have something transposed in the code I gave them and to check again. I am certain it is right bc I went over it again and again. they told me they couldn't even sell a windows 10 version anymore and that to get windows 11 would be over $200. I said "hard pass" on that.
My programs were crashing, everything was running slow, internet kept disconnecting etc bc if it thinks your version of windows is not valid it will bork your computer. So I went online and found a guide to put in a new code in cmd prompt, link to msguides, & re-register windows. I then went and did that on my mother's computer and brother's computer because they both had the same bs where microsoft would not accept purchased OS as valid after some hardware updates.
I got a headache doing it but now I feel much better and my computer is running ok -- knock on wood.