Why am I plagued by computer issues? Is it too much to ask for a computer to just f*!$£^g work?

Yesterday was spent trying to find the issue with a computer in Zoë’s office. I spent nearly five hours checking through all of its hardware after it began hanging at the memory test. In the end, the very last – and I mean very last – thing I checked seemed to be the problem. Namely that the PSU was doing something to the voltages causing the computer to hang at the memory check. With the PSU swapped out, all worked fine again and I was able to add back in all the hardware. Of course then Windows threw a wobbler over networking drivers, and that took a further hour of wasted time to fix.

Today’s issue? My main computer decided to hang on booting with an “NTLDR is missing” message. I’ve tried changing IDE cables with no joy. I’ve tried booting from the Win XP CD-ROM to try and fix the issue, but I get the same error message when booting from the disk. I tried the disk on this computer and it booted fine, so it isn’t the disk. Strangely my old Win 98SE disk allows the computer to boot, but then refuses to let me run the Win XP setup programme. I’m at a loss, and getting quite angry. This computer is about to buy itself a one-way trip to the municipal dump after I’ve beaten the crap out of it with a lump hammer.

Does anyone have any suggestions on fixing this issue? The computer returns the same “NTLDR is missing” bullshit with any Win XP cd.